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POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
the jargon of the metric system, compounded of Latin and 
Greek phraseology, in a single generation? In 1840, however, 
the system was again enforced by a strong Government. 
Nearly fifty years, or nearly two generations, had passed 
away before the nation could be made to learn the unwelcome 
task imposed upon it. 
The common people have a most natural and intuitive habit 
of reckoning by halves, quarters, thirds, eighths, &c. &c., and 
they go on subdividing, and then adding, particularly parts, 
with a surprising acuteness and accuracy. The decimal 
system rendered mental arithmetic at first impossible. 
Our own yard admits of no less than six modes of division, 
without breaking the component inch. 
Even to this day the French line and inch are still in use. 
Nobert’s celebrated test lines are ruled in bands T -oVo °f ^h e 
Paris line in breadth. And many ‘scientific instruments are 
still constructed by this obsolete measure. It is the twelfth part 
of the Paris inch, and too convenient to be entirely discarded. 
The experience of the greater part of a century is in favour 
of units of measure and weight, easily divided into integral 
parts, rather than decimals. No whole number can be divided 
by three, six, or seven, unless it is a multiple of one of them, 
without an array of decimal figures accurately interminable, 
and to the poor man incomprehensible. It may safely be 
asserted that a plebiscite of Englishmen would give the vote in 
favour of retention and adaptation of our own time-honoured 
standards, rather than for abolition. This is an affair which 
pointedly 
“ Comes home to every man’s business and bosom.” 
There is another consideration which has some weight, as 
against abolition of the standards. Almost every kind of 
special calculation, in particular departments of commerce or 
science, is wonderfully abbreviated by the principle of common 
factors . Owing to the frequency with which either 2, 3, or 5, 
or multiples of them, form bases of calculation, proportions or 
ratios innumerable have been gradually worked out, saving an 
enormous amount of labour. 
If the reader be asked how many feet per second is traversed 
by a racehorse going at the rate of 30 miles per hour, an 
array of figures will be employed to ascertain the result. But 
if he be informed that 22 feet per second is exactly 15 miles 
per hour, he will at once perceive that 30 miles per hour is 44 
feet per second. A few similar instances may be adduced. 
A square mile of country receives 27 inches deep of rain per 
annum : this is very nearly 2 cubic feet per second. 
Interest . — Sitice 73 is a factor in 365 days, five per cent, 
interest on 1,OOOZ. is exactly \0l. in 73 days: 1 1. for 100£. 
