DECIMAL SYSTEM OF PHARMACEUTICAL WEIGHTS. 35 
pounds; myriagramme = 22-046 avoirdupois pounds; quintal = 1*968 cwt. ; 
ton = 19-684 cwts. 
The equivalent of the standard imperial measures with the metric system are 
as follows :—An inch is equivalent to 25-399 millimetres, therefore a millimetre 
is about -A of an inch; a foot = 3-048 decimetres, or a little over 30 centi¬ 
metres; a yard =0-914 metre, or about t a metre ; a pole = 5*029 metres; a 
surveying-chain = 20-116 metres, differing little from the metric chain of 20 
metres ; a mile = 1609-315 metres ; a square perch = 25-292 square metres, a 
little more than a quarter of an are, or 100 square metres; a rood = 10-117 ares, 
corresponding nearly with the decare, which is 10 ares ; an acre = 0-405 hectare, 
or 5 acres would = 2 hectares; a pint = 0*568 litre; a quart = 1-136 litre, or 
a little more than -A-th over; gallon (imperial) = 4-543 litres; sack = 1-090: 
hectolitre ; quarter = 2*908 hectolitres. Troy grain = 0-065 gramme ; apothe¬ 
caries’ scruple = 1-296 grammes ; apothecaries’ drachm = 3-888 grammes ; troy 
or apothecaries’ ounce = 31-103 grammes ; a troy pound = 373*242 grammes = 
0*373 kilogramme; avoirdupois drachm = 1-772 gramme ; avoirdupois ounce — 
28-349 grammes ; avoirdupois pound = 453-593 grammes = 0-454 kilogramme. 
Subjoined is a table of minor measures of capacity and of minor weights for 
medical use. 
PROPOSED DECIMAL SYSTEM OF PHARMACEUTICAL 
WEIGHTS. 
Any one who has used the decimal system of weights and measures employed’ 
by our French neighbours, can scarcely have failed to be charmed with its 
extreme simplicity and the facility with which it may be learned and retained.. 
On the other hand, who that has puzzled over the almost hopeless confusion of 
our own system, and desponded at the difficulty with which it is drilled into our 
unwilling brains, and the too great ease with which it is forgotten, can have 
helped indulging a wish that we might some day borrow our weights, like our 
plays, “from the French”? 
The one great objection to adopting the French system in toto is, that none of 
the weights now in use can be expressed in grammes without resorting to frac¬ 
tions, and the confusion would thus only be rendered worse confounded. I have 
therefore endeavoured, as a step in the right direction, to turn some of our 
weights and measures—those, at least, used in pharmacy—into a decimal system, 
imperfect, it is true, but one which has the advantage of expressing all the exist¬ 
ing weights, with but two exceptions, in whole numbers. 
I cannot help thinking that if some such system could be introduced into the 
forthcoming edition of the Pharmacopoeia, a great boon would be conferred on 
us all, as none would have any difficulty in translating the old weights into the 
new, and one great cause of confusion, the difference between the troy and avoir¬ 
dupois weights, and also between the solid and fluid ounce, would be abolished. 
I propose, then, to adopt, as the unit of weight, the present scruple of twenty 
grains, which I would call a “ mona;” then, using the Latin and Greek prefixes 
to express the divisions and multiples respectively, as in the French system, ther 
table would be as follows:— 
1*00, the mona . 
*05, or 5 centimonas 
•10, or 1 decimona . 
3*00, 3 monas . 
24-00 . 
288-00 . 
21-875 . 
20 grains. 
1 grain. 
2 grains. 
1 drachm. 
1 oz. troy. 
1 lb. do. 
1 oz. avoirdupois. 
