THE INTRODUCTION OF METRICAL WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. 629 
opinions of practical pharmaceutists as to the practicability and desirability of 
introducing forms of medicine representing the more important metrical units, 
or some even multiples of them. Thus, for instance, most of the lozenges or¬ 
dered in the Pharmacopoeia weigh about 15 grains. Might they not all be made 
to weigh exactly a gram , and be marked with this weight? In fact the same 
rule, modified perhaps in some cases so as to make the weight 2 grams, might 
be applied to medicinal lozenges generally, by which means the public would 
become familiarized with the quantities represented by the weights which would 
be marked on each lozenge. If in this way we could establish forms of medi¬ 
cine representing different metrical units, we should be doing much towards 
preparing ourselves and the public for the reception of the new system, to which 
we should all become more reconciled as we became acquainted with the values 
of the terms used. 
Our greatest difficulty would probably be with reference to measures of capa¬ 
city. In France liquids as well as solids are weighed, and the measure-glass is 
rarely if ever used; but I believe it would be very difficult to establish that 
practice among our pharmacists, and there is no measure of capacity in the me¬ 
trical system that accords well with the fluid drachm or ounce. There is room 
for the exercise of ingenuity and judgment in devising the most suitable means 
of meeting the requirements of the physician and pharmacist in adjusting quan¬ 
tities by measure in prescribing and dispensing. 
If the metrical system were adopted by us in pharmacy, it would have to be 
adopted, of course, by the physician as well as the pharmaceutist; and those 
■who advocate its introduction must be prepared to show how, for instance, the 
physician is to indicate the quantities of the several ingredients in a six or eight 
ounce mixture containing drachms of some ingredients, such as tinctures, and 
ounces of others, such as infusions. At present we have no better method of 
representing the metrical equivalent for the fluid ounce than by 28 cubic centi¬ 
metres, but the multiples and submultiples of this number would be inconve¬ 
nient for use, as they would have to be used in prescribing and dispensing. 
To meet this and similar cases, it may perhaps be worth a consideration whe¬ 
ther it would not be desirable to do something similar to that which was at¬ 
tempted by the French in 1812, and again in 1827, that is, to approximate the 
old system to the new by establishing some intermediate links between them, 
taking care in doing this to maintain the integrity of the new system, but 
slightly bending the old so as to bring them into juxtaposition. If we were to 
do something of this sort we might construct a new measure both for capacity 
and weight, consisting of 4 grams, corresponding to 61’7 grains, and this might 
be called a tetram. In the same way we might construct a new representative 
for the ounce, consisting of 8 tetrams, or 32 grams, corresponding to 493 8 
grains, and this might be called an octram. If it were thought advisable to go 
further we might have a representative of the pound, consisting of 16 octrams, 
or 128 tetrams, or 512 grams, corresponding to 7900 grains, and this might be 
called a libram. These three new measures of weight and capacity, for in each 
case the weight of distilled water would represent a measure of capacity, while 
they would correspond with metrical measures, would be sufficiently near ap¬ 
proximations to the drachm, ounce, and pound of our system to render them con. 
venient integers to replace those measures in making a change from one system 
to the other. I throw out the suggestion for the purpose of courting disc ission. 
I would also suggest that, in introducing the metrical system in this country, 
the names of the different integers should be written according to English rather 
than French orthography. This would, I think, tend to reconcile some persons 
to the system who are accustomed to look upon it as a foreign innovation, be¬ 
sides which it would simplify the spelling of the names. 
Provision has been made in the Pharmacopoeia for the use of metrical weights 
