22 J. H. Gore — Decimal System of Seventeenth Century. 



Art. III. — The Decimal System of Measures of the Seven- 

 teenth Century • by Professor J. Howard Gore, B.S., Ph.D. 



June 17, 1799, was a remarkable day in trie history of the 

 " Comission des Poids et Measures." After nearly nine years 

 labor an arc of the meridian had been measured, the earth's 

 quadrant had been computed, and now a bar whose length was 

 one-ten-millionth of this quadrant, was formally presented to 

 the two " conseils du corps Legislatif." It is quite natural that 

 the members of this commission should rejoice over the con- 

 clusion of their work, a work which readily sustained the 

 closest scrutiny, and withstood the severest criticism, nor is it 

 surprising that their spokesman should say : " to employ as a 

 fundamental unit of all measures a type taken from Nature 

 herself, a type as unalterable as the globe which we inhabit, to 

 propose a metric system all of whose parts are intimately inter- 

 dependent, and whose multiples and subdivisions follow a nat- 

 ural progression, simple, easy to comprehend, and always uni- 

 form, is certainly an idea, beautiful, grand, sublime, worthy 

 of the brilliant century in which we live." In the detailed 

 account of operations which follow, there is interspersed a 

 large amount of praise for the participants — from Talleyrand, 

 who laid the proposition before the Assembly on May 8, 1790, 

 down to the laborers who carried in the prototype, on this 

 august occasion. But one looks in vain for a mention even of 

 the name of the humble, modest priest who deserves the credit 

 of first proposing " a type taken from nature herself, as unalter- 

 able as the globe which we inhabit.'' This priest was Gabriel 

 Mouton, of the collegiate church of St. Paul of Lyons. We 

 shall see how well-known he was to his contemporaries and 

 successors, and whether his system was borrowed by the advo- 

 cates of the metric system, or was a subsequent independent 

 discovery, after we shall have given an outline of his system. 



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Stadium . 10 



Funiculus 10 



Virga 1 



Virgula ._ 10 



Digitus .__ 10 



Granum 1 



Puuctum _ _ 1 



