1881.] Weights and Measures Question Reconsidered . 345 
there are few children old enough to go on an errand who 
cannot calculate the price of 4 or 8 ounces. But if asked 
if 1 kilo, of any article costs a franc, what should be paid 
for 116 or 290 grammes ? many of us — not children, nor 
exceptionally ignorant — would feel somewhat puzzled. The 
metric system in its present form brings us in contact with 
numbers beyond the reach of the multiplication table, and 
we consequently require the aid of paper and pencil to cast 
up the results. The faCt is this system, as at present or- 
ganised, is not decimal, but centesimal or millesimal. One 
thousand grms. make 1 kilo., the two intervening denomi- 
nations (the decagrm. = 10 grms., and the heCtogrm. = 
100 grms. or 10 decagrms.) being practically never used. 
The same holds good of the measures of capacity, the deca- 
litre or hectolitre. I can safely say that in the thousands of 
French, Belgian, and German receipts for dyeing, printing, or 
colour-making which have come under my notice, I have 
never seen any denomination of weight between the gramme 
and the kilo., or any denomination of measure of capacity 
above the litre. 
It is just the same with money in the countries of the 
“ Latin Union.” Between the franc and its hundredth part, 
the centime, there is no intervening denomination. 
Further, in our old traditional English system we can 
express very small quantities, weights, or measures, by whole 
numbers. A grain, a grain-measure, a line, are quantities 
below which it is rarely necessary to go, save in refined sci- 
entific investigations, in the manufacture of instruments of 
precision, &c. For the purposes of daily life and for retail 
trade nothing smaller is wanted ; but in the metric system 
the smallest magnitudes which are expressed in integers are 
much larger, and that in a mutually disproportionate degree. 
The smallest weight written as a whole number is the 
gramme = 15*438 grains ; the smallest measure of capacity 
is the litre = 176 pints ; and the smallest measure of length 
is the metre = 39*37 inches. Here, surely, is inconvenience 
and inconsistence, — the less to be tolerated as occurring in a 
system which takes its stand upon strict consistency ! 
It may be contended that these high values for the lowest 
denomination are not a disadvantage. I rejeCt such conten- 
tion. The higher is fixed the smallest denomination expressed 
in whole numbers, the sooner we are driven into the realm 
of fractions, — decimal fractions, as a matter of course. 
Now such fractions, however convenient to deal with, pen 
or pencil in hand, are most perplexing for mental calcu- 
lation. Except we possess exceptional arithmetical powers, 
VOL. III. (THIRD SERIES). 2 A 
