SCIENCE. 



S3 





scientific spirit in the difficult work of attaining it, and in 

 the almost equally important task of bringing it into gen- 

 eral and respected use. I call this a standard for conve- 

 nience, and not in a strict or ultimate sense. Strictly it is 

 only an authenticated copy of a standard, or a portion of a 

 standard, namely, of the world's standard meter or stan- 

 dard yard ; and hence, the importance, not fully shared by 

 the original metre itself, of corresponding perfectly with 

 its theoretical length. 



The adoption of the metric system has a formal sound, 

 and its difficulties have been, to say the least, well repre- 

 sented. But, to the extent of its use in micrometry, it 

 really presents no difficulties and many advantages. The 

 value of the millimeter and its decimals must be made 

 familiar to the mind for other purposes, even for the under- 

 standing of exclusively English literature, and to use it for 

 our measurements and statements will merely assist to keep 

 it fresh in mind. The English system, or rather tradition, 

 presents no pair of units so convenient for the microscopist 

 as the millimeter for large objects and the i-ioooth milli- 

 meter for small ones. For the purposes of most people, for 

 use in micrometry alone, it is sufficient to remember that 

 the millimeter is about one twenty-fifth of an inch, and 

 surely this is no great intellectual task. Nor would it 

 waste a large portion of a lifetime to learn the whole series 

 from the meter down, remembering that, in round numbers, 

 the meter is a yard, with three or four inches to spare, the 

 decimeter one-tenth of that 40 inches, or 4 inches, the 

 centimeter one-hundredth of that 40 ir. ches, or 4-ioths 

 of an inch, and the millimeter one-thousandth of that 40 

 inches, or 4-rooths, or 1-251I1 of an inch. The real difficulty 

 lies, I believe, not in memorizing the value of the few 

 new units required, but in the awkward and useless 

 habit of stopping to translate every item from the new unit 

 to an old one. Any one can add a few new words to his 

 vocabulary, a few new units to his tables, without harm. 

 The telephone and the phonograph have brought no disaster 

 along with their new double Greek names. An educated 

 person can learn in an hour all the new terms, values and 

 proportions of the whole metric system, with its interesting 

 and suggestive relations ; and the time would be well 

 spent though he never used the system again. But I know 

 by experience that he can also use it again, easily. When 

 you once learn by a little practice to think in the new 

 units the same as in the old, the apprehended difficulties 

 vanish unaccountably and can scarcely be brought to mind. 

 If asked to estimate the width of this room in yards, only 

 a child unfamiliar as yet with the practical use of measures 

 would say to himself, " It seems to be about 90 feet, which 

 would be 30 yards." You would rather look at the wall 

 to see how many times longer than a yard it is. So if you 

 will take a metric rule, learn well how the millimeter looks, 

 and its dek, the centimeter, and learn to use it in measur- 

 ing and estimating the size of suitable objects, such as 

 insects or flowers, you will find it as easy to think in milli- 

 meters as in lines, inches, feet, or yards, to say nothing of 

 the comfort of knowing that you are in no danger of being 

 lost between several kinds of the same name. 



Aside from the selfish though sufficient motive of our 

 convenience, I hope we shall practically adopt the metric 

 system, because we can thus contribute a trifle of influence 

 toward its general introduction. It seems plain enough 

 now that our country made a serious mistake in not adopt- 

 ing it at first ; and I am satisfied that it is still best lor us 

 to use it, notwithstanding the greatly increased difficulties 

 in our way. It is not questioned that this is the best 

 system ever tried or proposed, and the only one that can 

 possibly come into general use ; it is not denied that it 

 would simplify education, and substitute order and 

 intelligible relations for the confusion of our present 

 metrology ; it possesses as many points of convenient 

 relationship to our old system as could reason- 

 ably be expected in any new one ; it is ad- 

 mitted to be excellently adapted to all scientific work ; 

 it has been satisfactory to mechanics and manufacturers 

 who have actually used it ; it has been gradually and com- 

 pletely introduced intolarge shops using costly tools and ma- 

 chinery.withoutseriousexpense, and to the satisfaction of the 

 managers. Almost without exception its friends are those 

 who have used it, and objections to it come from those who 

 have not. You hear less of the evils it has caused lhan of 



those it would cause. Furthermore, it offers us a carefully 

 elaborated scheme of international co-operation, which we 

 have but to adopt in order to place ourselves in harmony 

 with the rest ; the metric system is all international. It also 

 unifies almost entirely the records made by persons adopt- 

 ing different units, since a statement of size will be practi- 

 cally the same to the eye and to the ear, and will require no 

 formal mathematical reduction, whether in centimeters, 

 millimeters, or in decimals of a millimeter. Fortunately 

 we have all tried the experiment for ourselves, in one de- 

 partment, and know what some of the objections are worth. 

 Our system of currency is precisely like the metric series 

 of weights and measures ; and is marked essentially by the 

 same evils and benefits. Who now believes that having 

 adopted a currency incompatible with the English system 

 has caused us a hundredth part of the trouble it has saved, 

 notwithstanding that it lacked the advantage of putting us 

 in harmony with the rest of the world ? Who now feels cut 

 off from the past because of the change, or regrets the loss 

 of the pounds and shillings so long as he has dollars 

 enough and of the right kind (it is not easy to satisfy 

 everybody about that) ? Who has found the poor oppressed 

 and the laboring classes annoyed by the system we adopted ? 

 Who has yet incurred a burdensome expense in hiring ac- 

 countants skilled in a foreign and to us obsolete nomen- 

 clature to compute from the records of the past how many 

 pounds, shillings and pence our grandmothers paid for 

 their bonnets, or our grandfathers for their ships or their 

 farms? The truth is the new system is so much better for 

 our present purposes that we are glad to use it as soon as 

 we fairly know how ; and I believe that the same would be 

 true of the whole metric system. We do not undervalue 

 the records of the past, with their elaborate computations, 

 and tables, and surveys; but few of the people of to-day 

 come in contact with these directly, and those few could 

 afford the extra trouble for the sake of the far greater inter- 

 ests involved. It is not scholars to whom learning in an 

 unfamiliar form is a terror ; they will spend lifetimes in 

 working over such lore, merely for the pleasure of the 

 work. And so much of it as is required for use in the 

 daily life of the illiterate world is consistantly modified, and 

 modernized, and adapted, by specialists of various kinds 

 who inherit the progress of the past but adopt the fashions 

 of the present. 



To adapt a homely phrase which has remarkably vindi- 

 cated itself, in another field in recent history, the proper 

 way to introduce the metric system is to introduce it ; not 

 to decide why others should use it, but to use it ourselves. 

 Nor need we wait to be certain of the feasibility of securing 

 its universal use. It may be profitably used in science 

 though not accepted in trade. The chemists have adopted 

 it fully and with satisfaction in their work, in their teach- 

 ings and in their books ; the physicians are adopting it in 

 different parts of the country, and the microscopists may 

 well enjoy its facilities whether others do so or not. — 

 {Inaugural Address, Buffalo, 1879.) 



Experience, says the Electrician, has shown that the life 

 of a submarine telegraph cable is from ten to twelve years 

 If a cable breaks in deep water after it is ten years of age it 

 cannot be lifted for repairs, as it will break of its own 

 weight ; and cable companies are compelled to put aside a 

 large reserve fund in order that they may be prepared to re- 

 place their cables every ten years. The action of the sea- 

 water eats the iron wire completely away, and it crumbles 

 to dust, while the core of the cable may be perfect. The 

 breakages of cables are very costly, and it is a very difficult 

 matter to repair them, in comparison with a land line. A 

 ship has to be chartered at an expense of $500 a day for two 

 or three weeks in fixing the locality, and in avoiding rough 

 weather, as cables can only be repaired in the calmest sea- 

 sons. One break alone in the Direct Company's cable cost 

 them ,£20,000 to repair, and the last chance left to the com- 

 pany was to make an agreement with the Anglo-American, 

 so that they should be protected and have the use of that 

 company's line when their own was stopped. 



