232 
BRITISH PHARMACEUTICAL CONFERENCE. 
Lineal measure. 
Tree = 42 ft. 8 inch. 
Field == 113 yds. 2 ft. 4 „ 
Lane = about 912 yards. 
Road = about 7296 „ 
The cubic inch of water (252*5 grains) would be 2*307 plums, the cylindrical 
inch = 1*814 plums. The cubic span would be 2*307 hats, and the cylindrical 
span would be 1*814 hats. The pound of water would be, as at present, 27*7274 
cubic inches or 21*777 cylindrical inches ; a “ cask ” or “ ox ” of water would be 
21*777 cylindrical spans. It is to be observed, that though a decimal division 
of weights is inconvenient for the practical production of eighths or sixteenths, 
an octavial division of weights does not impede the use of decimal fractions in 
calculations, so long as our arithmetic is decimal; and if arithmetic itself should 
become octavial, the new weights would be in perfect harmony with a system of 
octavial fractions still more excellent than our present decimals. 
Octavial money could be adopted with little difficulty. The present currency 
would scarcely require alteration ; taking the pound and its eighth, two useful 
coins now in circulation ; and making the groat, by a small reduction, of the 
half-crown, the halfpenny by a similar reduction would be | of the new groat. 
We have thus the elements of a new money-table almost without change in our 
current coins ; these however would have to become coins of account, and thus 
involve a change, but only a simple one in book-keeping. 
On the adoption of the octavial weights, measures, and money, the figures 8 
and 9 would fall into comparative disuse; the former being expressed as “ 1 ’’ 
of the higher order, thus, 1 0 ; and the latter as one of the higher order plus 
one, thus, 1 1: this would be the first step towards octavial numeration if it 
was found desirable. 
In summing up a few figures, it will readily be seen, thus :— 
Tare ... 4 7 2 2 
Net . . . 6 4 5 7 
1 3 4 0 1 
But these matters are too far in the future to require further discussion at the 
present time ; and in quitting the subject let me express a hope that I have not 
done injustice to any of the projects criticized ; and if I have ventured to recom¬ 
mend other changes in preference, it is only by the light shed from those who 
have preceded me that I hope to have carried the matter one step nearer to a 
satisfactory arrangement. 
11, Grey Street , Newcastle-upon-Tyne . 
ON MICROSCOPICAL RESEARCH IN RELATION TO 
PHARMACY. 
BY HENRY DEANE, F.L.S., AND HENRY B. BRADY, F.L.S. 
(Read at the Nath Meeting of the British Pharmaceutical Conference , Sept. 1864.) 
In these days of “popular science,” when every one possesses and is sup¬ 
posed to use a microscope, it may seem to some to be a matter requiring apo¬ 
logy, to bring before an Association, counting amongst its members so many 
men eminent in the practice of a scientific profession, any considerations un¬ 
der so diffuse and general a heading as that appended to the present paper. 
It is not however our object to occupy the time of the Conference, to more 
than a very limited extent, in old and well-worn lines of scientific inquiry, 
but rather to explain and illustrate certain applications of the microscope to 
purposes of research, which so far as we know have been but little followed 
