632 
PHARMACEUTICAL MEETING. 
of the inherent beauty and simplicity of the system, and its adaptability to the 
wants of all classes of mankind. The fact was that steam and electricity had 
made all of them far more cosmopolitan than were their grandfathers and great¬ 
grandfathers ; and hence had arisen, he conceived, the natural demand for a 
system of rules, measures, and coins, which should be the complement and the 
corollary to the universal system of decimal numeration. He might perhaps be 
allowed to remind them of the value of that system, and in doing so he thought 
he could not put the matter into better words than he had already done in a 
short paper that he published some three or four years ago in the ‘ Pharmaceu¬ 
tical Journal.’ “ Whatever language a man speaks his method of numbering is 
decimal; his talk concerning number is decimal; his written or printed signs 
signifying number are decimal. With the figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0, he 
represents all possible variation in number, the position of a figure in reference 
to its companions alone determining its value, a figure on the left-hand of any 
other figure in an allocation of numeral symbols (for example, 1869) having ten 
times the value of that figure, while the figure on the right-hand of any other 
has a tenth of the value of that other. When the youngest apprentice is asked 
how many units there are in 1869, he smiles at the simplicity of the question, 
and says 1869. How many tens? 186, and 9 over. How many hundreds? 18, 
69 over. How many thonsauds? 1, and 869 over. But if he is asked how 
many scruples there are in 1869 grains, how many drachms, how many ounces, 
—he must probably bring out his slate and pencil. And so with the pints or 
gallons in 1869 fluid ounces, or the feet and yards in 1869 inches, or the pence, 
shillings, and pounds in 1869 farthings; to say nothing of cross-questions, such 
as the value of 1869 articles at 9s. 6d. per dozen; and to say nothing of per¬ 
plexity caused by the varying values of several individual weights or of measures 
of length, capacity, and surface in different parts of the country. What is de¬ 
sired, then, is that there should be an equally simple decimal relation among 
weights and measures and coins as already universally exists among numbers. 
This condition of things having already been accomplished in other countries, 
there is no good reason why it should not be accomplished in this.” It was im¬ 
portant to bear in mind what had been done by other countries. He thought 
that eight countries in Europe had adopted this system, and recently Prussia had 
given in her adhesion to the scheme. He had before him the report of the 
Committee on the Project of Law for the Regulation of Measures and Weights 
for the North German Confederation, and he should like to read just one sen¬ 
tence from that report, inasmuch as it had led to very important results. The 
Commissioners said,—“ We confine ourselves at present to the expression of our 
conviction that the advantages of a strictly decimal system are so great as to 
render its adoption imperative upon us, even if we should be the first to do so, 
and no probability existed of any other State following the same course. But 
what is the actual state of things with respect to this question throughout the 
world? The metric system is at this day in full operation in France, Belgium, 
Holland, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Greece, even in part of Germany (the 
Bavarian Rhine-Palatinate), while it is at least permissively introduced in Eng¬ 
land, Switzerland, and the United States with every prospect of being finally 
adopted in these countries. Thus, in fact, the question can no longer be whe¬ 
ther, but only when the metric system shall be introduced among ns? The reply 
is easy to give ; it should be—immediately ! That every day we in Germany con¬ 
tinue to use the old, bad, and, above all, hundredfold diversified measures and 
weights, is a loss to the national wealth. The metric system once introduced, 
we should obtain not only all its advantages in the transaction of internal trade, 
but also facilities that can scarcely be overestimated in our foreign commerce with 
Prance, Italy, and other countries who have adopted the metric system.” The 
result of all this agitation in Germany in favour of the adoption of the metric 
