12 
French  Metric  System,  Orthography. 
j  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
Jan.,  1881. 
English,  they  did  not  content  themselves  with  a  loose  expression,  nor 
did  they  endeavor  to  form  by  English  analogy  one  that  should  be 
€xact ;  they  employed  the  French  word  itself.  They  did  this  even  when 
the  English  offered  an  equivalent  expression,  if  the  French  word  was 
particularly  recommended  by  interesting  or  agreeable  associations.  For 
words  of  a  technical  chaixicter  they  would  scarcely  think  of  seeking 
equivalents  in  EngUsh,  The  body  of  the  English  people  hearing  from 
their  superiors  the  French  words  with  the  Saxon,  they  naturally  imi- 
tated and  adopted  them.  Thus  the  new  importations,  bearing  the 
stamp  of  elegance  and  fashion,  passed  from  the  circles  of  polite  society 
into  the  language  of  the  vulgar.  They  found  free  entrance  into  works 
•of  literature,  not  only  because  they  supplied  real  deficiencies  in  the 
English  vocabulary,^  hwi  also  because  they  were  especially  familiar  and 
acceptable  to  those  classes  whom  the  author  would  most  wish  to  interest 
and  please." 
Now,  having  shown  from  abundant  evidence  that  we  have  many 
precedents  for  the  use  of  French  words  in  our  language  with  their 
original  orthography  retained,  that  the  proposed  changes  do  not,  except 
in  one  instance — gram — shorten  the  terms,  and  that  in  this  case  the 
shortening  is  likely  to  be  a  dangerous  experiment,  there  is  yet 
another  point  of  view  in  which  the  change  is  objectionable  :  These 
terms  metre,  litre  ^gramme  have  been  established  nearly  a  century; 
they  are  now  in  use  by  millions,  re])resenting  the  highest  civilization 
of  the  world,  and  does  it  not  seem  petty  and  trivial  to  practically  say: 
Yes,  we  Americans  adopt  the  metrical  system ;  it  is  perfect  in  all  of  its 
principles  ;  the  inter-relation  of  the  standards  is  so  unique;  we  have 
never  had  it  in  any  other  system,  and  Sumner  was  right  when  he 
crystallized  its  merits  in  the  following  language  :  Universality,  uni- 
formity, precision,  signihcance,  brevity  and  completeness ;  a  system  of 
weights  and  measures  born  of  philosophy  rather  than  chance,"  and  yet 
we  must  improve  it  a  little.  AVe  have  tried  hard,  yet  cannot  pick  a 
flaw  in  its  symmetrical  proportions,  nor  suggest  a  change  in  its  beauti- 
ful adaptation  to  our  wants ;  yet  there  is  one  small  chance  left,"  we  will 
phoneticize  it,  and  conflne  our  improvement  to  changing  the  spelling  of 
the  last  two  letters  in  the  units.  The  French  are,  in  all  honesty, 
entitled  to  whatever  credit  is  due  for  originating  the  most  perfect  sys- 
tem of  weights  and  measures  yet  devised,  and  do  not  let  us,  as  a 
nation,  rob  them  of  even  this  little  leaf  from  their  chaplet — the  origi- 
nal orthography. 
^  Italics  mine. 
