METRICAL WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. 
679 
ing to further the common object which they had in view, had looked to the 
Pharmaceutical Society as likely to aid them in their object. They were 
anxious to have an expression of opinion on the part of pharmaceutists, as prac¬ 
tical men, and educated men, and it was suggested to hitn that it would be very 
desirable that the subject should be discussed in that room, in order that the 
members of the Society should express their opinions, and that they should go 
before the world. These were the two principal considerations which induced 
him to bring this subject forward. The opinions which had been expressed 
during the discussion agreed very much with his own. Without going so far 
as to represent the metrical system as perfect, they admitted that as a whole it 
was the best they had, and that it stood the best chance of being universally 
adopted. Defects there certainly were in it, and it was not necessary, nor would 
it be wise for them to shut their eyes to such defects as existed. The taking of 
the meter as the initial integer was probably an error. It would have been 
better to have selected such a measure from practical, rather than theoretical 
considerations. Even the perfect uniformity of the relationship of the different 
integers one to another, in a practical point of view, was not always conducive 
to convenience. It might be compared to the adoption, by a railway company, 
of a system of starting and stopping the trains in which they were started at 
equal intervals of time, say of two hours or five hours, and were made to stop 
at stations fixed at equal intervals of space, say of ten miles. Now, this would 
be very systematic, and, as a system, might appear very good, but the effect of 
it would be, that trains would be starting when people did not want to travel, 
and would be stopping where nobody wanted to go. Our system differed from 
the metrical system in being founded more upon experience, and less upon 
theory. In our system the measures were suited for the purposes for which 
they were intended. They had the grain as an integer for small quantities; 
and a most convenient measure it was for the measuring doses of medicines. 
They had the ounce as the integer for groceries, consisting of spices and articles 
of that description, a perfectly convenient integer. Then there was the pound 
and the hundredweight, for other quantities for which they were well suited. 
It was true there was not a uniform relationship between the grain and the 
ounce, the ounce and the pound, the pound and the hundredweight; but these 
integers were fixed and established by experience; they were the quantities that 
had been found most convenient for the purposes for which they were intended, 
and in that there was, no doubt, an advantage. Nevertheless, there was a great 
want of uniformity, and our systems had become fused together, as it were, so 
that they had not any one system as it originally existed. They had fused 
together the troy grain with the avoirdupois ounce and pound, and that was 
one of the great defects in their present arrangement. And looking at this 
great defect as it now existed, it was quite obvious that they must find a remedy 
for it. The question was how were they to accomplish that ? There were men 
of eminence who were of opinion that the metrical system was not the best, and 
they would not give their adhesion to it, or advocate its adoption in this country, 
because they considered that an octavial system or duodecimal system would be 
theoretically and practically better. But the great mass of men who were in¬ 
quiring into this subject waived slight defects of that description, because they 
said there was no other system that stood the chance of being generally adopted. 
At the present time this country stood out almost alone as the only advanced 
nation which had not done anything towards introducing the metrical system 
of weights and measures into this country ; and if we were to adopt it, it would, 
in a very short time, become universal throughout the world. That was oue 
great thing to be looked to, as the greatest advantage would be the fact of its 
being a common language, a universal system. And what he was anxious to 
do was to prepare the way for it, seeing there was every probability that before 
