IIS MEASUIIEMENT OF AN ARC 



called the Utrei, and is equal to 2'|- English pints, wine meaTarc. Tfe 



unit of meafore for weight, is the weight of a eubic centimetre of 

 ditlilled water, at the temperature of 32^. 



This fyflenn is extrei^ely limple and ingenious, and proraifes per- 

 petuity, whenever the old prejudice in favor of the a-ncicnt we^hts and 

 meafures fhall be overcome ; a od notwithftanding i?s forejgn O'lgin, 

 I .fliallHiil hope that an enUghtened. nation like ours, wi!) adopt eiihef 

 this, or fome other one, on iirailar principles. New names feem to be 

 abfolately neceilary, and I do not know of any that aie more appro- 

 priate, ihao tbofe which the i^r^fwcA mathematicians have made it f^ of. 

 vWe have no meafisre. which correfponds with any fradional part, of ihe 

 quadrantal arc of the meridian, The fathom may be called the nearefl, 

 but it certainly is not fo iimple a fraction as the io,cocoooth part, and 

 Jf we, were to increafe the yard to correfpond with the metre, wc 

 ihotild have to increafe the inch, the foot, and every other meafure 

 in the fame proportion^ fuperficial and cubic meafurts would have 

 ^Ifo to undergo the fame change« A fyllem, which has already beera 

 adopted by nearly all the, nations on the conaacot^ would the uio^ 

 evilly become .poiverl^L 



