Caeeuthers. — A Sijstem of Weiyhts and Measures. 155 



the Spaniards ! [perro being tlie Spanish word for dog). Here, I think, 

 will be found quite enough to upset that far-fetched theory, seeing that the 

 New Zealanders possessed then- little South Sea dog ages before a Spanish 

 keel ever floated on the waters of the South Pacific ! But there are several 

 other such theories abroad, equally without reasonable foundation. 



Art. XI. — A System of Weights and Measures. 

 By J. Carruthees, M. Inst. C.E. 

 [Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 1st Septeniber, 1877.] 

 In designing a system of weights and measures there are several points to 

 be taken into consideration, of which the most important is, perhaps, that 

 the radix of the system shall be continually divisible by two without a 

 remainder. The number of inches, for mstance, which the foot contains or 

 the number of shillings which the pound contains should be some power of 

 two. An odd number would be most inconvenient as the radix. If the foot 

 contained eleven inches, half a foot Vv^ould contain 5^ inches, and a fraction 

 is at once introduced, the inconvenience of which in commerce and in all 

 arithmetical and mechanical work is very great. 



Next to the odd numbers, the most inconvenient are the odd numbers 

 multiplied by two such as 6, 10, 14, 18, etc. Here the objectionable fraction 

 is put off one step only, and on halving twice again shows itself. 



No system of measures in which one of these numbers is adopted as the 

 radix ever has been nor ever will be thoroughly in use. The American 

 divides his dollar into half and quarter dollars, and to continue as far as 

 he can the convenience of being able to divide by two he adopts the " bit " 

 or " York shilling " unknown to the law. The English workman divides 

 the inch, not into three barley-corns as by law dhected, but into halves, 

 quarters, eighths, and sixteenths. The French workman again divides his 

 millimetre into halves and quarters like his English brethren. The two 

 systems, in fact, run side by side but do not coalesce ; as far as the decimal 

 system lends itself to division by two it is used, but no further. As soon as 

 it fails in this respect it is thrown aside in favour of the more natural and 

 convenient system of having a radix continually divisible by two. 



Another important point is that the several measures of weight, super- 

 ficies, capacity, etc., shall be tied together, and be interdependent. The 

 French adopted a logical system in which this point received full attention, 

 but the inherent unsuitability of the number 10 as a radix has prevented its 

 adoption in full, and then* system is now a body without a head, for their 



