354 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXI. No. 531. 



of school life by this liberal estimate amounts 

 to G.8 weeks, from wliich the introduction of 

 the metric sj'stem is to save from one to 

 three years. 



It would seem as if absurdity in advocating 

 the .metric system could go no farther. The 

 exposure of this metric fallacy is not an occa- 

 sion for ridicule, directed at Lord Belhaven, 

 the House Committee on Coinage, or others 

 who have accepted it in good faith. It is 

 rather a cause of humiliation that such an 

 absurd pretence regarding education should 

 have been spread broadcast, not only without 

 dissent from the schools, but with their enthus- 

 iastic approval. Have our educators become 

 so accustomed to receiving and imparting in- 

 formation by mere authority that they have 

 lost the power of analysis? 



Dr. Seaman refers to the English system as 

 ' the complex, irregular and barbarous system 

 now in vogue.' Again, Professor J. II. Gore, 

 of the Society for the Promotion of the Metric 

 System, is thus quoted in School Science: 



We send consular representatives to every quar- 

 ter of tlie globe for the express purpose of making 

 possible an extension of our foreign commerce, 

 and then busy ourselves in an attempt to make 

 such commerce impossible, and retain a system of 

 weights and measures which adds to our own 

 difTiculties and makes us mere barbarians to the 

 more progressive nations. 



The metric advocates, while accepting the 

 wild and extravagant claims for the metric 

 system, treat our own system with contempt. 

 Nevertheless, the scientific method that ex- 

 poses the liollowness of their claims also proves 

 that the English system is intrinsically the 

 best and, as far as uniformity is desirable, 

 the most uniform system on earth. It is the 

 standard of the richest portion of the earth's 

 surface; of the two most enlightened, populous 

 and powerful nations on earth; and of the 

 only nations that control vast unsettled re- 

 gions to accommodate the increase of their 

 I)oi)ulation. It is tlie standard of the past 

 and present, and the world trend points to it 

 as the standard of the future. 



Dr. Seaman states tliat: 



Any one who will take pains to inquire of any 

 of the thousands of immigrants that come among 

 U-, will convince himself that the metric system is 



the principal system in actual use in trade and 

 commerce in European countries. 



For two years I have been taking pains to 

 do this very thing, and have been convinced 

 by it that the European immigrants know 

 very little about the metric system. A few 

 typical examples: An Italian from Xaples 

 was acquainted with the ' kil,' but knew noth- 

 ing about the meter, his ideas of length being 

 based on the can, which he informed me was 

 something less than eight feet. A Swede said 

 that while the metric system was used in the 

 stores in his country, the tunland and hemend 

 were used for measuring land. An Austrian 

 was ignorant of metric measures, but was 

 familiar with the pfund and zoll. An edu- 

 cated German informed me that the metric 

 system was the only one used in Germany, 

 but added : " Aber das Volk braucht die alten 

 Masse." A Greek had heard that the 'kil' 

 was used in Italy, but did not know what the 

 metric system was. His standard of weight 

 was the oJca. Greek land, he said, was meas- 

 ured by the stremma. When asked how cloth 

 was measured in Greece, his wife replied: 

 " By the pik." 



With all it was the same story, ignorance 

 of metric units, familiarity with their old 

 standards. None expressed any ideas of meas- 

 ure to conform with those of any other nation- 

 ality imtil I talked with a Russian. Scratch 

 a Russian and you will find an Englishman — 

 in measures. His standards of linear meas- 

 urement are either the same as or commen- 

 surable with the English inch. His duim is 

 our inch; his archin is 28 inches; his ver- 

 schock is If inches; his sagen is 7 English 

 feet ; and his verst is 3,500 English feet. Two 

 hundred years ago, Peter the Great, while in 

 Holland, was impressed by the superiority of 

 the English vessels that visited the Dutch 

 ports. This led him to visit England, where 

 he worked as an ordinary carpenter in the Eng- 

 lish shipyards. When he returned to Russia 

 he took back with him four mast makers, four 

 boat builders, two sail makers, and about 

 twenty other workmen to teach their trade to 

 his people. Thus without coercive laws, but 

 lioacofully and naturally, the English system 

 was introduced into Russia, and to-day is the 



