29 
SUNDERLAND CHEMISTS’ ASSOCIATION. 
A meeting of the members of the above Association was held in the Athenaeum, on 
Monday evening, June 7th; William Thompson, Esq., the President, in the chair. The 
minutes of the last meeting having been read and confirmed, the meeting proceeded to 
consider the code of rules which had been drawn up by the Council of the Society, 
Messrs. Bird, Dalby, Dobinson, Sharp, and J. Harrison. These rules were, after much 
discussion and a few slight alterations, agreed to. The President-then signified his inten¬ 
tion of presenting a number of books, to form the nucleus of a library intended to be 
established in connection with the Association, and it was also announced that Messrs. 
Evans, Sons, and Co., of Liverpool, intended to present one of their Materia Medica 
cabinets. The announcement of these donations was received with applause, and 
thanks were voted to the donors. After a letter had been read from the Pharmaceutical 
Society, stating that Mr. J. J. Nicholson, the Honorary Secretary of the Association, 
had been appointed local secretary, the meeting terminated. 
ORIGINAL AND EXTRACTED ARTICLES. 
THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH SYSTEMS OE MONEY-WEIGHTS 
AND MEASURES. 
TO THE EDITOR OE THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL. 
Sir,—The recent discussion upon this subject, and its national importance, 
induce me to address to you a few observations on the question, “ What is the 
gramme , and how are we to deal in ‘ metric ’ quantities ?” 
We are told that the adoption of the u metric ” system is only a “ question of 
timeand, instead of dealing in dozens and counting by tens, we are now in¬ 
vited to adopt a foreign system, and to introduce money-weights and measures 
all divided on a decimal scale. 
As this question is one that involves first principles, we are necessarily com¬ 
pelled to refer to our natioual standards, and to treat the respective systems of 
money, as well as weights and measures, in as simple and primitive a manner as 
possible. The subject can only be dealt with in connection with the coins of 
the country ; and as the metric system is described as a purely decimal system, 
in comparing our weights and measures with those in use, called “ metric,” we 
must consider first in what manner decimals may be used with advantage, and 
to what extent the English, as well as the French, system admit of their appli¬ 
cation. 
The decimal system works very well upon paper. In our calculations and 
accounts, although the florin and the decimal measures of the penny and the 
pound are only of real use in the application of decimals to our money of ac¬ 
count and standard weights and measures, we have in them a comprehensive 
and practical means of comparison with “metric” measures. Without these 
or some other decimal measures, it would be impossible to give even approxi¬ 
mate equivalents to the weights and measures of the metric system. 
The use of decimals certainly appears to be little understood in this country. 
It may be that hitherto decimal weights and measures were only forced upon 
those who hold commercial relations with France; but the application of deci¬ 
mals to our money has not only long occupied the attention of scientific men, 
but a permissive bill, for the use of “ metric ” weights and measures in this 
country, has actually passed through Parliament. Money, however, being the 
standard by which people always value “ things,” it is vain to attempt to intro¬ 
duce any changes without preserving and establishing a certain relation which 
it is quite necessary to maintain between the coins of the country and the weights 
and measures in use. 
