ON WEIGHTS, MEASURES, COINS, AND NUMBERS. 
223 
yisitation of cholera in 1859 it is said to have proved of great efficacy. At 
present it is relied on in typhus and typhoid fevers, and in smallpox. Dr. 
Phillipo, of Spanish Town, considers it superior to taraxacum, as a chola- 
gogue. The decoction is generally employed, being always used cold, as 
when hot it acts as an emetic. A tincture is also made. It appears to sti¬ 
mulate the action of the heart powerfully. 
2. Croton humilis .—The stem of this plant has much acrid pungency, and 
is sometimes masticated as a stimulant in relaxed sore-throat. In Lindley’s 
‘ Vegetable Kingdom,’ it is stated to be used for medicating baths in the 
West Indies. 
Preparations of both plants having been made, it is proposed to submit 
them to trial in England. 
ON WEIGHTS, MEASUEES, COINS, AND NUMBEES. 
BY JOHN ATTFIELD, PH.D., F.C.S., 
DIRECTOa OP THE LABOEATOBY OP THE PHAEMACEETICAL SOCIETY OF GEEAT BEITAIN. 
I have been at some trouble in collecting actual specimens of metric 
decimal weights and measures, with allied coins, etc., for temporary display 
at the Exhibition of Objects relating to Pharmacy now (August, 1866) open 
at the Assembly Eooms, Nottingham, in connection with the British Phar¬ 
maceutical Conference, and for more frequent reference should a similar ex¬ 
hibition be held annually in the towns visited by that Association.* I have 
done this in the hope of aiding in familiarizing at least one section of the 
community—Chemists and Druggists—with a system destined, without 
doubt, at no distant period to displace the present barbarous confusion of 
weights, measures, and coins in use in this country. For, though habit pre¬ 
vents us from fully and constantly realizing the inconveniences attending the 
use of existing weights and measures, their incongruity with each other and 
with our monetary and numerical systems is none the less real. 
It is now, happily, scarcely necessary to say anything in favour of the 
universal adoption of the metric decimal system of weights and measures, 
and a corresponding decimal system of coinage. Most persons who have 
thought over the matter agree that such a proceeding would be to the im¬ 
mense advantage of education, labour, trade, science, and the general interests 
of society. Pharmaceutists have frequently indicated their desire for change 
from the existing inharmonious methods of weighing, measuring, buying, 
selling, and calculating to a system in which either of these operations should 
bear a simple relation to the rest. They, in common with other peopD, 
recognize the convenience of the relation of grosses and dozens to shillings 
and pence, that so many sovereigns per ton must be the same number of 
shillings per hundredweight, etc. etc., and, whenever opportunity has arisen, 
have agreed to welcome a system which should bind weights, measures, 
coins, and numbers into one harmonious whole, characterized by a single re¬ 
lation equal in simplicity to either of the two illustrations just mentioned. 
Every volume of the ‘ Pharmaceutical Journal ’ contains allusions to this sub¬ 
ject in the form of reports of meetings, discussions, papers, letters, etc., and 
the Proceedings of our own Conference include an elaborate report on 
weights and measures, by Mr. Barnard S. Proctor. 
* During the intervals of the yearly meetings, the collection will be open to inspection in 
the rooms of the Pharmaceutical Society, Bloomsbmy Square, Loi don. 
