JANUARY 13, 1905.] 



SCIENCE. 



73 



the metric system is bound to be adopted 

 sooner or later, and that personal inconven- 

 ience for a few days should not be allowed to 

 interfere with a measure calculated to promote 

 the trade and prosperity of the country. 



We have had nine years of permission to use 

 the metric system without thereby rendering 

 ourselves liable to punishment for a breach of 

 the law, and experience has proved that the 

 change from the system that has been so long 

 in use in this country to a new system can not 

 be made over the whole country voluntarily. 

 It is a case for compulsion, and I think the 

 legislature will be thanked by the country for 

 having applied compulsion. In Germany, 

 France and Italy no inconvenience has re- 

 sulted from the introduction of the metric 

 system, and there has never been such a thing 

 as a complaint. The change in Germany oc- 

 cupied only two years. I have in my hands 

 a statement by Sir Wm. Kamsay, in which he 

 wrote : " I was in Germany during the change 

 there; it gave no trouble whatever and was 

 recognized within a week." 



It is interesting to know that the decimal 

 system, worked out by French philosophers, 

 originated in England. In a letter dated 

 November 14, 1783, James Watt laid down a 

 plan which was in all respects the system 

 adopted by the Fren'ch philosophers seven 

 years later, which the French government sug- 

 gested to the King of England as a system 

 that might be adopted by international agree- 

 ment. James Watt's objects were to secure 

 uniformity and to establish a mode of division 

 which should be convenient as long as decimal 

 arithmetic lasted, a thing we may consider as 

 absolutely settled. 



I hope this bill will be sent forward with 

 full pressure to the other house, 333 members 

 of which have declared themselves in favor of 

 it and ready to support it. 



In introducing the bill, Lord Belhaven and 

 Stenton recalled some of the testimony given 

 in the blue book, known as the ' Eeport on 

 Weights and Measures,' made to the house of 

 commons July 1, 1895. That report contained 

 three recommendations, viz : 



(a) That the metrical system of weights and 

 measures be at once legalized for all purposes. 



(b) That after a lapse of two years the 

 metrical system be rendered compulsory by 

 act of parliament. 



(c) That the metrical system of weights and 

 measures be taught in all public elementary 

 schools as a necessary and integral part of 

 arithmetic, and that decimals be introduced 

 at an earlier period of the school curriculum 

 than is the case at present. 



Of these recommendations the first was com- 

 plied with by the permissive act of 1897, which 

 made the use of the metric system in trade 

 lawful (it was previously illegal to use it), 

 and the third was adopted under the educa- 

 tional code of 1900. The second is in the bill 

 now before us. An important point in the 

 history of this subject is, that in August, 1902, 

 there was a colonial conference attended by 

 all the premiers of the self-governing colonies, 

 which passed this resolution : " It is advis- 

 able to adopt the metric system of weights and 

 measures for use within the empire, and the 

 prime ministers urge the government repre- 

 sented at this conference to give consideration 

 to the question of its early adoption." And 

 since that time the colonies have been pushing 

 the matter with great earnestness. 



The saving of time in education by the use 

 of the metric system is not only in the teach- 

 ing of the tables, but the whole system of com- 

 pound addition, subtraction, multiplication 

 and division, and the system of computation 

 called ' practise.' Last year inquiries were 

 made of head masters of schools on this sub- 

 ject, and 197 sent replies, of which 161 said 

 the saving would be one year, 30 said it 

 would be two years, and 6 said that it would 

 be three years. The senior mathematical 

 master of Edinburgh high school wrote : " An 

 average scholar would save at least a year 

 and a half, probably two. I conceive it to 

 be not only a saving of time, but an economy 

 of mental effort which is incalculable." 



The commercial value of the metric system 

 has been reiterated by British consuls in 

 foreign countries for many years. In the 

 Board of Trade Journal, February 15, 1900, 

 the British consul at Amsterdam says : " The 

 iron and steel manufacturers' unions of Ger- 

 many have adopted a uniform system of 



