%™ptJembe?iS'}    Metric  System  of  Weights  and  Measures.  415 
That  the  metric  system  is  commendable  not  alone  as  a  suitable 
international  standard,  but  also  for  facility  of  computation,  conve- 
nience of  memorizing  and  simplicity  of  enumeration. 
That  we  cannot  expect  nations  using  the  metric  system  to  aban- 
don that  and  use  our  systems  instead. 
That  the  only  valid  objection  that  has  been  made  to  the  metric 
system  is  that  it  cannot  continuously  be  subdivided  by  two. 
That  in  the  case  of  our  decimal  currency  this  objection  has  proven 
to  be  more  than  overcome  by  its  other  advantages. 
That  as  a  minimum  unit  of  lineal  measurement  the  millimeter  is 
fully  as  convenient  as  the  sixteenth  or  thirty-second  of  an  inch. 
That  it  is  not  considered  practicable  to  inaugurate  the  adoption 
of  the  metric  standards  for  weights  Oi  liquid  measures,  in  advance 
of  the  lineal  measure,  even  if  the  former  would  not  involve  as  much 
inconvenience  or  expense  as  the  latter. 
The  reading  of  these  conclusions,  and  the  resolutions  that  were 
proposed  to  accompany  them,  was  followed  by  an  interesting  dis- 
cussion that  is  being  published  in  the  current  numbers  of  the  Jour- 
nal of  the  Franklin  Institute. 
A  few  additional  points  that  were  brought  out  in  the  course  of 
this  discussion  may  be  of  interest  to  pharmacists. 
The  meter,  or  unit  of  length  was,  of  course,  most  violently 
assailed,  largely  from  the  standpoint  that  compulsory  adoption  of 
the  same  would  cause  confusion,  delay  and  serious  loss  in  machine- 
shop  practice. 
Mr.  Vauclain,  the  superintendent  of  the  Baldwin  Locomotive 
Works,  Philadelphia,  in  speaking  of  the  futility  of  this  line  of  argu- 
ment, said  that  no  up-to  date  machine  shop  could  afford  to  allow  its 
employees  to  use  foot-rules  or  measuring  sticks,  but  that  all  modern 
shop-practice  was  based  on  the  use  ot  steel  gauges,  and  the  work- 
ing to  scale  Irom  drawings,  instead  of  using  any  system  of  lineal 
measures.  In  illustration  of  this  point  he  said  that  the  works  he 
was  connected  with  employed  upward  of  11,500  men.  The  daily 
output  was  five  complete  modern  locomotives  a  day,  each  one  of 
which  required  upward  of  1 3,000  separate  pieces,  accurately  made 
and  adjusted  before  it  could  be  turned  out  on  the  track  as  a  finished 
product. 
If  we  stop  to  consider  that  many  of  these  various  parts  are  inter- 
changeable, or  that  parts  are  often  supplied  to  replace  broken  or 
