100 
WEIGHTS  OF  THE  PHARMACOPOEIA. 
except  to  a  slight  extent,  the  present  notation  or  mode  of  read- 
ing. All  the  values  heretofore  employed  in  the  Pharmacopoeia 
remain  unchanged.  This,  in  our  opinion,  gives  the  "grain 
scheme"  a  very  great  superiority  to  the  avoirdupois  scheme 
adopted  by  the  British  Colleges.  It  is  true  that  their  new 
series  of  weights  differ  from  the  old  by  only  an  eleventh  part, 
(an  amount  perhaps  not  distinguishable  by  simple  observation,) 
but  this  difference  is  as  real,  and  in  a  very  large  majority  of 
cases  where  these  -weights  are  to  be  applied,  is  as  seriously  im- 
portant, as  would  be  the  substitution  of  the  French  milligramme. 
The  difficulty  and  labor  of  acquiring  a  familiarity  with  the  new 
weights,  and  the  tedium  of  constant  reductions  for  a  long  time 
to  come,  would  also  be  as  great  as  if  a  radically  different  system 
had  been  adopted.  By  the  *£ grain  scheme"  no  such  difficulty 
would  exist.  The  pharmaceutist  and  the  physician  would  employ 
the  notation  by  grains,  the  week  after  its  adoption,  with  as  much 
facility  as  they  would  the  present  system.  Perhaps  it  would  be 
more  correct  to  say  that  they  would  experience  an  increased 
facility  in  its  use. 
An  evil  of  no  slight  magnitude  in  this  unnecessary  disturbance 
of  familiar  values,  and  in  the  transitional  disorganization  una- 
voidably consequent  upon  it,  is  that  it  would  prove  a  formidable 
obstruction  to  any  higher  and  more  useful  reformation.  Men, 
after  having  just  passed  through  the  labor  of  a  long  and  trouble- 
some apprenticeship  required  for  the  acquisition  of  any  new 
system,  are  naturally  indisposed  to  repeat  the  process  soon  again 
with  another  system,  however  excellent,  or  whatever  the  benefits 
it  may  ultimately  promise.  If  the  change  proposed,  therefore,  is 
not  one  of  such  value  and  importance  as  is  likely  to  secure  a 
general  and  a  'permanent  establishment,—  if  it  is  not  as  full  and 
satisfactory  a  remedy  of  present  ills  as  might  be  attained,  and 
thus  leaves  much  to  be  accomplished  at  some  future  time, — this 
question  of  the  amount  of  disturbance  involved  by  the  substi- 
tution becomes  a  pertinent  objection,  and  is  one  which  should  be 
thoroughly  and  thoughtfully  considered.  Not  unfrequently  have 
seeming  improvements  proved  barriers  to  real  reforms. 
The  practical  application  of  the  "grain  scheme  "  is  so  obvious 
that  it  would  appear  scarcely  necessary  to  present  an  example 
of  its  notation.    Indeed  our  present  Pharmacopoeia  exhibits 
