623 
PHARMACEUTICAL MEETING. 
been established here by law, but we have not acted entirely upon the same 
principles. 
We proposed to take an object representing an unvarying measure of exten¬ 
sion, which, depending upon a fixed law of nature, could be reproduced at any 
time and applied for the verification of our standards. But instead of taking 
the measurement of the earth’s circumference, we took the length of a pendu¬ 
lum vibrating seconds of mean time, in the latitude of London, in a vacuum 
at the level of the sea. This measure scarcely differs from the French metre, 
but instead of using this measure as our unit, we used it only for indicating the 
proper length of the inch, from which all other measures of extension, capacity, 
and weight, according to our system, are calculated. 
We have not established the same simple relationship between measures of 
extension, capacity, and weight, as exist in the French system, but have mostly 
retained such measures as were previously in use; and as the old measures were 
not framed in accordance with a decimal division, such a division does not cha¬ 
racterize our system. 
The essential differences between our system and the metrical system are 
these, that there is great incongruity between the different parts of our system, 
which is not the case with the metrical, and that the metrical system is a deci¬ 
mal one, which ours is not. 
It may be stated of both systems, and equally of both, that the means ori¬ 
ginally proposed and provided for verifying the standard by reference to natural 
objects or phenomena have not proved to be practically available. Both systems 
in this respect have, to a certain extent, given way under the rigid application 
of the test of experience, and it is found that the most accurate method of 
verifying all weights and measures is by comparison with artificial standards 
carefully kept for that purpose. 
Any superiority which the metrical system may possess over ours must be re¬ 
ferred, not to the method of determining the fundamental unit from a natural 
standard, but to the more perfectly systematic manner in which all measures 
are related to the first integer in this system, to the decimal arrangement in it 
of all measures, and above all to the fact that it presents the only apparent 
means by which we can reasonably hope to establish one uniform system of 
weights and measures for all countries. 
The advantages which in these respects the metrical system presents would 
probably ensure a ready assent to its adoption, if those required to use it could 
be induced so far to master the details of the subject as to acquire definite ideas 
of the quantities represented by the integral measures. It is with reference to 
this part of the subject that I wish particularly to invite discussion. 
If we are to look to the metrical system as that which is ultimately to replace 
our present system, we must prepare the way for its adoption by making those 
who are engaged in the practice of pharmacy acquainted with it, and not merely 
acquainted with the system, which involves very little difficulty, but, what is of 
far more importance, acquainted with the values of the integral measures, so as 
to have some definite ideas of what they represent. 
Until this has been done I cannot conceive that it would be practicable, and 
certainly it would not be compatible with a due regard for the interests of the 
public, to introduce so great a change as would be involved in the adoption of 
metrical weights and measures in preparing, prescribing, and dispensing medi¬ 
cines. The difficulty, and I think almost the only difficulty experienced by 
those who have been unaccustomed to the use of metrical weights in adopting 
them for any special purpose, is caused by the absence of clear conceptions of the 
quantities represented by the different integers. What is wanted in the first 
instance is that we should be able to associate some familiar objects with the 
several units of metrical weights and measures. I should like to hear the 
