672 
PHARMACEUTICAL MEETING. 
sent a drachm very nearly, might or might not be divided according to the decimal 
system ; or it might, at the option or convenience of the person about to use it, 
be divided into halves or quarters. This, of course, applied more especially to 
the octram and libram, and not so much to the tetram. But the fundamental 
objection he had to it was, that it was based on eight as the multiple. If they 
were to have the decimal system, he should object strongly to eights. There 
were many well-informed men, of practical ability and scientific skill, who had 
laboured to show that they were wrong in adopting the decimal system at all,— 
that the most natural system was one of which 8 was the integer. That, how¬ 
ever, was not the question for them to consider. The decimal system was 
largely used abroad, and was coming so much into use here that they would be 
compelled to follow in the wake of other nations. They must, therefore, discard 
the notion that the decimal system was anything but the best, and, for the 
purpose of the discussiou that evening, assume that it was the best. The other 
objection which he had, which was a more important one, was that he did not 
think it would be more easy to remember that a tetram was four grams than 
it would be to remember that four grams were equivalent to the old drachm. 
There was some advantage, to be sure, in units ; and, if this was a question for 
the public, he should be disposed to concur with Prof. Redwood, that he had an 
excellent precedent in the French case ; but the French were wanting to carry 
this system throughout the country, and it was necessary, therefore, that they 
should adopt processes for conveying this system, in some way or other, to the 
intuitive mind. Now, it seemed to him that this was not their object. The 
public would ultimately learn something of the decimal system through any 
class which chose to use it,; and he did not think that pharmacists should go out 
of their way, and spoil what was naturally a good system by doing that to it 
which was really not necessary for educated people. It would be as easy in 
practice to take a definite number, say four ; and in writing it did not take up 
more space, and did not require an}*- greater exertion of the mind to use that 
than it did to use the tetram. His opinion, as regarded the introduction of 
these weights and measures, was that, rather than adopt any such plan as that 
suggested by the Professor, they should wait a longer period, and educate them¬ 
selves in the system by getting practically acquainted with it. Now, to do this 
it was quite clear there must be a certain amount of education on both sides. 
The medical practitioners must learn how to use and prescribe under this sys¬ 
tem ; and they, the pharmacists, must learn how to compound, manufacture, 
and dispense. As regarded the first part, it seemed to him very important that, 
if it met with the concurrence of the Council of this Society, they should make 
some suggestion or recommendation to the General Medical Council on this 
point. lie was not quite sure, as he had not had an opportunity of searching, 
but he believed it was a fact that in none of the universities, and in none of 
the examining bodies granting degrees in medicine, was there any test bearing 
upon this system. In the case of the medical profession, it seemed to him that 
the best time for getting some acquaintance with it, or rather for exacting ac¬ 
quaintance with it, would be at the preliminary examination. He thought it 
would not be too much to expect that a medical student, after a given time, 
should know at all events the principle of the metrical system. If he did that, 
he would have little difficulty, as he got further on in his career, whether as a 
pharmacist or as a member of the medical profession, to complete the change 
from one system to the other. That is more important, because he fancied that 
most of his brethren who had had anything to do with medical men, who had 
ever had to suggest a mode of carrying out a problem partly chemical and 
partly physiological, would bear him out in saying that very few indeed had any 
knowledge of this system ; and it was in working out such problems especially 
that, as every one knew, the advantages of it were so great. That their own 
