316 
Weights and Measures 
TO THE EDITOR. 
Sir — A publication of the following curious calculations on 
weights and measures, &c. will probably gratify your scientific 
readers, and diffuse useful information to your subscribers in ge- 
neral. 
WEIGHTS AND MEASURES, &c. 
J From a course of lectures on Natural Philosofihy and the Mecha- 
nical Arts, by Thomas Young, M. D. 2 vols. 4to.— -London. 
Price J5 5s.— -Johnston, 1807. 
The English yard is said to have been taken from the arm of 
king Henry I. in 1101. 
Graham found the length of the pendulum vibrating seconds ac- 
curately, equal to 39-13 inches. Desaguliers. 
Bird’s parliamentary standard is considered as of the highest 
authority, it agrees sufficiently with sir George Shuckburgh’s and 
professor Pictet’s scales, made by Troughton. 
The royal society’s standard, by Graham, is perhaps about a 
thousandth part of an inch longer than Bird’s ; but it is not quite 
uniform throughout its length. — Maskelyne Ph. Tr. 
The standard in the exchequer, is about ’0075 inch shorter than 
the yard of the royal society.— -P/s. Tr. 1743. 
General Roy, employed a scale of Sisson divided by Bird. He 
says it agrees exactly with the tower standard on the scale of the 
royal society.' — Ph. Tr. 1785. 
Taking Troughton’s scale for the standard, sir G. Shuckburgh, 
finds the original tower standard 36.004 ; the yard E on the royal 
An Esquimaux or a Laplander, with his dried fish and train oil, or a Border- 
Indian with his jerked venison and bear’s fat, might with equal ignorance and 
stupidity, make a similar exclamation ! I know of nothing so debasing, nothing 
so characteristically brutal, as the indiscriminate satisfying of mere animal 
appetite. 
But let us consider : is there any thing which ought to be called know- 
ledge, but what consists in the methods of alleviating pain, and producing, 
promoting, prolonging, and communicating grateful, pleasurable feelings ? Is 
there any use whatever of riches, but as they contribute to the same good pur- 
pose ? If this be true, then is that man a public benefactor, who in any man- 
ner improves the theory of pleasurable sensations. Who contibutes to pro- 
mote cheerfulness by good cheer, and to cultivate TASTE, whether as applied 
in its literal, or its metaphorical meaning — whether to the pleasures of senti- 
ment or the pleasures of sense. Adieu. Epicuri de grege Porcus \ 
