14 SPECIAL GENERAL MEETING OF THE PHARMACEUTICAL SOCIETY. 
change of thought, would have a humanizing, socializing, and civilizing effect, 
and this, in his estimation, was the great and paramount advantage likely to re¬ 
sult from the change. But it might equally be said that it would be very de¬ 
sirable to have one universal language; yet if a proposition were made that 
after the lapse of three years the English language should be abolished and the 
French or German or Italian language adopted in its stead, such a proposition, 
although it might be advocated on the ground of its having a humanizing and 
civilizing tendency, would nevertheless be scouted as an absurdity, because it 
would be felt to be impracticable. The adoption of one uniform system of 
weights and measures throughout the world was probably not impracticable, 
but it involved great difficulties, and it could not be effected suddenly. The 
change, moreover, would not bring those practical advantages that some persons 
seemed to anticipate. Thus, for instance, he considered that the weights and 
measures at present used in pharmacy in this country were more convenient for 
the purposes of prescribing and dispensing than those of the metrical system. 
The grain, the scruple, the drachm, and the ounce, were good and convenient 
measures, well adapted for the purpose to which they were applied. These were 
natural standards, that had been adopted as most suitable for the measurement 
of quantities such as they were applied to. Thus, in describing the doses of 
medicines, a grain of calomel or four grains of antimonial powder could be ex¬ 
pressed simply and very intelligibly. Then they spoke of a three-grain or a 
five-grain blue pill; and the grain was found to be a measure that applied very 
conveniently in such cases. There was no equally convenient weight to express 
such quantities in the metrical system. Again, in describing the doses of tinc¬ 
tures and medicines of that sort, the drachm was equally convenient, and this 
agreed with the teaspoonful. For medicines of a still milder description, the 
ounce, corresponding to two tablespoonfuls, was as convenient a measure as could 
be devised, and much more convenient than any in the metrical system. They 
could substitute no better or more convenient weights and measures for these ; 
and lie felt assured, as they had so long been established in use, were so -well un¬ 
derstood, were so intimately associated with the doses of medicines, and were in 
every respect so convenient and suitable for the purpose to which they were ap¬ 
plied, that they would be continued in use to a greater or less extent for the 
next thirty, nay, fifty years to come, in spite of any laws that may be passed. 
He thought, therefore, that they ought not hastily to repudiate the old system, 
for there was something to be said in favour of it as well as of the new system. 
In fact, the proposition to abolish all our old measures and substitute new ones 
wvralcl have been received much less favourably than it has been, if it had not 
been for the attempts "which have been made to tamper with those we have been 
accustomed to. It was doubtful what benefit they, as pharmaceutists, would 
gain by the change if it were made, but there could be no doubt as to the incon¬ 
venience they w r ould suffer in making the change as proposed in the Bill, and 
therefore he was rather disposed to concur with the resolution that had been 
sent up from Brighton. There might be a country, somewdiere on the other side 
of our globe, where the atmosphere was more agreeable than it was in this 
country, where the land was more fertile, and where everything contributed, 
much more than here, to the prosperity and happiness of the people ; but 
even if it were proved that such a country existed, it did not follow, on such 
a proposition being made, that they should immediately sell off all they possessed 
and emigrate to that country. He thought they would hesitate before doing so, 
and consider the consequences of breaking-up their happy homes, of committing 
themselves to the waves, with the dangers of a sea-voyage and the difficulties of 
re-establishing themselves in a foreign land. The case they were dealing with 
was somewhat similar. It might be that they had an imperfect system of 
weights and measures, but it -was one with which they were thoroughly ac- 
