610 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XX. No. 514. 



the elastic use of the word ' scientific ' among 

 the popvilace. The expression of contempt 

 just quoted manifests a very limited horizon, 

 and the ' measurers ' are probably able to 

 avoid intrusion. But the day for such sharp 

 distinctions is past. Everything depends 

 upon what we mean by ' scientific' A man 

 may devote years to chemistry, or physics, or 

 biology, without learning scientific method, 

 by making himself a measurer and resting 

 satisfied with such routine. Mr. Halsey does 

 not seem to remember that discovery is an 

 aim in the pursuit of science, or that the 

 demonstration of originality is incomparably 

 more important in determining scientific 

 standing than the ability to measure, how- 

 ever important this may be as a means. The 

 mental training understood to be ' scientific ' 

 has to be applied in every pursuit where close 

 observation, orderly arrangement, accurate 

 calculation, independent thought, patient in- 

 dustry and good judgment are necessary. The 

 recent presiding officer of the society repre- 

 senting English and American chemical in- 

 dustries, which convened a few weeks ago in 

 New York, has a world-wide reputation as a 

 scientific man rather than as a measurer. 

 His successor as president is an American 

 manufacturer, but one whose exceptional 

 mastery of scientific method has enabled him 

 to achieve distinction as a ' maker ' of chem- 

 icals. According to Mr. Halsey's classification 

 the opinions of Sir William Ramsay should be 

 of no importance to Mr. Nichols ; and if one of 

 them is a metric advocate the other should be 

 anti-metric. Our distinguished English guest 

 has had many pleasant things to express about 

 America, but in regard to our manufacturers 

 he felt constrained to say : " The majority of 

 them do not make it a practice to read scien- 

 tific journals or to familiarize themselves with 

 the latest trend of scientific thought. Eng-' 

 lish manufacturers are far ahead of Ameri- 

 cans in this respect, and Germany shows a 

 clean pair of heels to both." What would 

 he have said after reading Mr. Halsey's ex- 

 traordinary views? 



Any citizen of our country, who has an 

 interest in educational, scientific or commercial 

 progress has a right to an opinion, and to 



make himself heard if he can, regarding our 

 weights and measures. To say that it is ' an 

 industrial and commercial, and not a scientific 

 question ' is mere assumption. Some scientific 

 manufacturers have expressed themselves in 

 favor of the metric system. Mr. Halsey's 

 claim, that scientific men who urge a change 

 that may affect the immediate interests of 

 manufacturers ' simply meddle with other 

 people's affairs,' is as untenable as the claim 

 of a politician who argues that no American 

 has a right to urge tariff changes because 

 they damage the interests of the trusts. 



That the pecuniary interests to be affected 

 by a change in our system of weights and 

 measures are large and important is readily 

 conceded. No one, moreover, will deny the 

 great advantage of standardization for screw 

 threads, pipes and textiles, or that a change of 

 standards would be expensive. Mr. Halsey 

 says that manufacturers know this to be ' im- 

 possible.' This is not conceded, either by 

 metric advocates or by all manufacturers. In 

 some departments of industry metric standard- 

 ization has become established in Europe; and 

 if for the same industry a metric standard is 

 in use in one country and a British standard 

 in another the abandonment of one of these 

 ^vill at last be necessary, even if it involves 

 ' meddling with other people's affairs.' The 

 two chapters of Mr. Halsey's book which he 

 regards as the most important thus fail to 

 establish anything more than what was already 

 apprehended, that ' certain people would lose 

 money and otherwise suffer much inconven- 

 ience by the change.' His assumption of 

 ' impossibility ' is entirely in keeping with the 

 lack of ' scientific ' or judicial fairness in the 

 rest of his book. 



The universal and exclusive employment of 

 the metric system, if at all within the bounds 

 of possibility, is so remote that it needs no 

 consideration. What we do need, and what 

 seems quite possible at no very distant day, 

 is an international system of weights and 

 measures, adopted by the central governments 

 of the civilized world for use in all interna- 

 tional commerce and in all government work. 

 This would not compel American or English 

 manufacturers to change their standards for 



