THE INTRODUCTION OF METRICAL WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. 633 
system was that Prussia had given in entire adhesion to it, and had passed a law, 
that after the 1st of January, 1872—only three years hence—the metric system 
would be compulsory throughout the whole of Prussia. Within the last two or 
three years the question of introducing it into India had come before the proper 
authorities ; and although the matter was not quite settled at present and no¬ 
thing had yet been published concerning it, he might be allowed to say, Avithout 
any breach of confidence, that the recommendation of the various authorities 
and commissioners engaged in the matter was that the metrical system should 
be introduced throughout the whole of the five Presidencies of India. Then, 
as regarded England he had only to refer them to the division which took place 
in the House of Commons in May last on the second reading of the Metrical Bill, 
Avhen the numbers against, the passing of the bill, which was for the introduction 
of the system, were 65, and in favour of it, 217. Now the bill was not passed, 
for two reasons. First, because there were other very important matters which 
needed to be ventilated and passed. The other reason was, that the important 
commission alluded to by Professor Redwood—the Standard Commission—should 
go into the whole question and report thereon to the Government, before the 
matter was brought forward again. So then they came to the point which Pro¬ 
fessor Redwood had so clearly brought before them, as to the extent to which 
this system affected them, and the means by which they could best bring it be¬ 
fore pharmaceutists and the general public. On the whole, he concurred with 
what Professor Redwood had stated ; but he thought with reference to the in¬ 
troduction of the metrical equivalent in the formulae of the British Pharma¬ 
copoeia, that that would be one of the best and most important ways of bring¬ 
ing this matter practically before chemists and druggists. Fie did not think 
it would greatly encumber the Pharmacopoeia if given for every process, in¬ 
asmuch as it would be quite unnecessary to give the exact equivalents. All 
that would be necessary would be to give the equivalents of nineteen things 
out of twenty in grammes and not in submultiples of the gramme. Now, he 
thought that if they had the metrical equivalents of the weights and measures 
in the Pharmacopoeia introduced into every formula, without anything com¬ 
pulsory,—for he quite agreed with Professor Redwood that it would be unde¬ 
sirable to introduce compulsion in this matter, at all events for the present,— 
if they had these equivalents so introduced, and induced manufacturers to mark 
their weights and measures metrically, and if they recommended chemists and 
druggists to use metrical weights and measures and have them marked with 
the equivalents of the old system, in that way all who felt inclined to en¬ 
tertain the matter at all—and by that time there would be many inducements 
for them to entertain it—would be able to do so to the best advantage. With 
regard to the question of the difficulties attending the introduction of the me¬ 
trical system, he did not think it was desirable to enter upon them now. He 
would merely say that it was a general principle, that whatever could be done 
with numbers could be done with weights, measures, and coins, which, after all, 
were but the concrete expressions of numbers. 
Mr. Abraham, of Liverpool, said it was interesting to observe that the 
pharmaceutical chemists of Germany were in advance of their Government 
upon this question, for it would be found that in the last German Pharmacopoeia, 
which included Austria as well as Prussia in Germany, published last year, the 
decimal system of grammes was introduced, and all the formulae were given in 
parts. It was a very great convenience when they had occasion to use the 
Pharmacopoeia, that they need not care what was the integer, because the 
relative proportions being given, they had only to take their grains, grammes, 
or ounces, to obtain a correct result. However, the pharmaceutists in Ger¬ 
many had adopted the system for general purposes before the Government. 
The President said that in the first British Pharmacopoeia, if he mistook 
vol. x. 2 x 
