262 
rOPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
ing the franc at once into harmony with the stiver and farthing. 
Thus— 
25 francs = £1 = 100 stivers = 1,000 farthings. 
1 franc = 4 stivers = 40 farthings. 
100 francs = 400 stivers = £4. 
And the franc would admit of halving and quartering, and 
again subdividing into eight parts, twenty parts, or even forty 
parts, which would certainly very soon render it a favourite 
coin. 
The new notation for 3,1 69£. 9 florins 3 stivers and 3 far- 
things would simply be 
£3,169-933 ; 
which again may be read as 3,1 69£. and 933 farthings, or 
3,169 1. 93 stivers and 3 farthings. 
In this case, if the shilling be still coined, it must be half a 
florin, and therefore contain fifty farthings, instead of forty- 
eight. On this basis, £3,1 69*933 will be readily translated 
into £ s. d. 
The fact, however, of the shilling containing a halfpenny 
more than twelve pence will probably cause its extinction, a& 
well as sixpenny, threepenny, and fourpenny pieces, as they 
would no longer rank of the same value in reference to the 
pound sterling. A sixpence could not at the same time repre- 
sent exactly six pennies and the fortieth part of a pound, when 
250 pennies made the sovereign, instead of 240 (Appendix 
No. I.). 
The demi-florin would properly take the place of the shilling 
(Appendix No. II.), which will inevitably disappear at last from 
the coinage, if the franc of ten pence be introduced, containing 
forty farthings. 
DECIMAL WEIGHTS. 
The exceedingly simple and elegant definition of the English 
pound avoirdupois, founded upon a standard gallon measure — 
that it is the tenth part of the weight of a gallon of distilled 
water, of 277*274 cubic inches, when the barometer stands at 
30 inches, and the air is 62° Fahrenheit, the water being 
weighed at the sea-level, and that this pound weighs exactly 
7,000 grains — admits of a notation of the highest possible con- 
venience. 
It is with diffidence that the writer, in the face of so much 
laborious and patient investigation, now carried forwards for so 
many years, ventures to propose the introduction of the follow- 
ing scheme, by the adoption of a unit of weight, to be called 
