860 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIX. No. 492. 



of a part of the rim of a crater in existence 

 before the construction of the present cone. 

 The map shown in connection with the 

 paper was prepared by 1£. Leon Leboucher for 

 the Club des Montagnards of Guadeloupe. 

 This club has recently celebrated the first 

 anniversary of its founding, and its report 

 shows that it has done a great deal in a short 

 time toward the opening up of roads and paths 

 to the Soufriere, making the highest and one 

 of the most interesting mountains of the 

 Lesser Antilles readily accessible to visitors. 

 Edmund Otis Hovey, 



Secretary. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 



THE METRIC SYSTEM. 



To THE Editor of Science: Permit me to 

 differ from Mr. William Kent as to the con- 

 clusion to be drawn from Professor W. 

 Le Conte Stevens's article on the metric sys- 

 tem. If he will substitute for the word ' im- 

 possibility ' the word ' possibility ' I shall be 

 glad to agree that Professor Stevens's ' article 

 is useful, however, in showing the possibility 

 of the general adoption of the metric sys- 

 tem in its present form by the people of this 

 country.' There seems to be every probability 

 that one will not have to live to be very old 

 in order to see by experience this possibility 

 become a fact, in this country as well as in 

 England, which now seems likely to precede 

 us in this reform, as she has in various polit- 

 ical ones. I can not share the desire of Pro- 

 fessors Lane and Stevens to temper the metric 

 system to the conservatism of the American 

 people by adopting its values disguised in the 

 ■sheep's clothing of the present non-system. 

 I believe that the intelligence of our people 

 is not insufficient to enable them to drink their 

 milk by the liter with as much gusto as by the 

 quart, and to realize that six cents a liter is 

 «ix dollars a hectoliter, even if a Greek prefix 

 is involved. It takes a bold man to assert 

 that the American people can not do what the 

 French and Germans have done, and that they 

 will not be able to see the advantage of it. 

 If ' the people can not be compelled to adopt 

 a nomenclature that is thrust upon them as a 

 ■substitute for that to which they have always 



been accustomed ' we should have no decimal 

 system of currency to-day, for the people were 

 very much accustomed to pounds, shillings and 

 pence, but seem to have been willing to be 

 compelled to adopt dollars and cents (what an 

 outrageous, foreign, difficult Latin word!), 

 and in fact, seem even to prefer them. Is the 

 inch more sacred than the pound? The en- 

 gineer will reply, yes, and here we come to the 

 kernel of the whole matter. It is the mechan- 

 ical engineers and builders of machine tools 

 who are delaying the adoption of the metric 

 system. Now, while these persons constitute 

 a very important part of the community, they 

 do not constitute the whole of it. Drills, taps 

 and dies, rigs and jigs are not the only argu- 

 ment that should be brought into the question, 

 although engineers would have us believe it. 

 Of course, it will cost us something to change 

 our system, and this is a visible item. It is 

 costing us more not to change it, but this is 

 not so visible. I do not care to go into the 

 arguments here, but merely to protest against 

 the argument from conservatism, and also to 

 suggest that the best way to find out the facts 

 about the metric system is to apply, not to the 

 engineers, who have not used it, but to the 

 scientific men who have used it. The attitude 

 of the conservative engineer toward changing 

 the system of measurement is very similar to 

 that of Osesar toward the Senate : ' Can not 

 is false, and that I dare not, falser ; I will not ' 

 change. Arthur Gordon Webster. . 



ZOOLOGY and the INTERNATIONAL CATALOGUE OF 



scientific literature.* 



This work has just come into my hands and 

 I have examined it for references on the sub- 

 ject to which most of my attention is given, 

 viz., Ccelenterata. The data given below will 

 indicate the value of the catalogue, so far 

 as Ccelenterata are concerned, in comparison 

 with two other well-known bibliographic un- 

 dertaking's, the ' Bibliographia universalis ' of 

 the Concilium Bibliographicum and the 

 Zoological Record. 



For the year 1901, the Concilium Biblio- 



* ' The International Catalogue of Scientific 

 Literature.' First Annual Issue, N, Zoology 

 [for the year 1901]: 1904 (February). 



