124  B.  s.  proctor's  report  on  weights  and  measures. 
taken  at  random,  [comparing  the  minimum  dose  with  the  maximum] 
.  .  .  .  there  are  21  instances  in  which  the  octavial  scale  would 
most  readily  meet  the  wants  of  the  case  ;  15  in  which  duodecimal  would 
have  the  advantage  ;  but  no  instance  in  favor  of  the  decimal, — no  doubt, 
because  the  decimal  scale  does  not  so  readily  express  these  simple  re- 
lationships. 
Taking  at  random  22  prescriptions,  I  found  the  relation  between  the 
separate  ingredients,  and  the  total  quantity  to  be  of  an  octavial  nature  in 
32  cases,  to  be  of  a  duodecimal  nature  in  10  cases,  and  of  a  decimal 
character  in  only  1.  I  found  the  total  quantity,  estimated  as  a  multiple 
of  the  smallest  ingredient,  was  13  times  octavial,  6  times  duodecimal, 
and  only  one  decimal.  I  found  the  number  of  doses  ordered  was  9  times 
octavial,  6  times  duodecimal,  and  only  1  decimal. 
The  division  of  paper  into  pages  for  a  book  is  almost  necessarily  done 
by  binary  or  ternary  folding;  we  have  folio,  quarto,  octavo,  etc.,  and 
duodecimo,  but  no  division  by  tens. 
The  mariner's  compass  is  necessarily  divided  by  fours  and  powers  of 
fours. 
Many  other  instances  might  be  adduced  in  which  the  natural  process 
is  evidently  doubling  and  halving  repeatedly  performed ;  but  I  do  not 
know  of  any  instance  in  which  division  or  multiplication  by  5  or  10,  is 
by  the  force  of  natural  circumstance  a  matter  of  necessity.  This  re- 
peated halving,  a  matter  of  necessity  in  some  cases,  a  matter  of  conveni- 
ence in  others,  has  become  a  matter  of  habit  in  almost  all.  To  adapt 
cur  weights  and  measures  to  this  fact,  is  to  adapt  ourselves  to  our  cir- 
cumstances, and  work  in  harmony  with  natural  laws.  To  establish  a 
system  which  does  not  afford  facilities  for  this  natural  process  is  to  work 
in  ignorance  of  natural  laws,  if  not  in  direct  opposition  to  them  ;  and 
nothing  established  upon  such  a  foundation  can  be  eminently  convenient, 
or  permanently  successful. 
Having  now  discussed  the  relative  merits  of  octavial  and  duodecimal 
division  ;  and  having  in  my  former  paper  pointed  out  what  I  considered 
the  principal  failings  of  the  metrical  system,  I  have  now  only  to  point  out 
those  particulars  in  which  I  think  the  American  octonary  scale  may  be 
advantageously  modified. 
There  is  no  great  advantage  in  deriving  a  system  from  a  natural 
standard  ;  and  if  the  standard  weights  or  measures  are  to  be  repeatedly 
derived  from  the  so-called  natural  source,  they  will  be  liable  to  variation, 
either  from  the  'natural  source'  itself  varying,  as  in  the  case  of  the  foot  • 
or  our  estimate  varying,  as  in  the  case  of  the  metre,  the  pendulum,  or  the 
cubic  inch  of  water." 
Granting  the  full  force  of  what  the  writer  then  proceeds  to 
urge — to  wit,  that  a  "  standard  of  weight  denned  by  a  certain 
piece  of  metal  or  other  durable  substance,"  (as  adopted  by  the 
