474 
The  Grain  Weight. 
(  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
I     October,  1894. 
the  English  system  of  weights,  so  called  because  considered  equal 
to  the  average  of  grains  taken  from  the  middle  of  the  ears  of  wheat." 
This  would  lead  us  to  believe  that  a  grain  in  weight  should  be  the 
counterpart  of  an  average  grain  of  wheat. 
Concerning  the  origin  of  the  grain  weight,  C.  W.  Pasley,  "  Meas- 
ures, Weights  and  Money,"  London,  1834,  p.  8,  says:  " — those  days 
of  feudal  ignorance,  in  which  the  standard  of  English  lineal  measure 
was  referred  to  the  average  length  of  a  barleycorn,  and  the  stand- 
ard of  weight  to  the  average  weight  of  a  dry  grain  of  wheat  from 
the  middle  of  the  ear,"  which  might  also  lead  to  the  inference  .that 
our  present  grain  weight  represented  the  weight  of  an  average  grain 
of  wheat  at  the  time  of  standardization. 
But  careful  preliminary  weighings,  which  I  had  made  of  good 
samples  of  wheat,  convinced  me  that  an  inference  drawn  to  that 
effect  would  be  erroneous  and  that  modern  grains  of  wheat  do  not 
average  a  grain  in  weight.  It  is  exceptional  for  a  single  abnormally 
large  wheat  grain  to  weigh  a  grain. 
Giving  the  literature  on  the  subject  some  further  study,  in  order 
to  find  an  explanation  of  the  inconsistency  mentioned,  I  arrived  at 
the  fact,  that,  while  the  grain  weight  actually  represented  the  weight 
of  average  grains  of  wheat  about  600  years  ago,  this  standard  was 
changed  200  years  afterwards. 
Johnson's  Universal  Cyclopaedia,  1893,  gives  the  following  sum- 
mary of  that  fact  in  the  definition  of  the  word  "  Grain":  "  Grain. — 
A  statute  of  Henry  III  (in  the  year  1266)  enacted  that  32  grains  of 
wheat  from  the  middle  of  the  ear,  well  dried,  should  weigh  a  penny- 
weight, of  which  20  should  go  to  the  ounce;  but  finally  in  the  1 2th 
year  of  Henry  VII,  the  pennyweight  came  to  be  divided  into  24 
grains." 
Thus  it  is  seen  that  32  standard  grains  of  wheat  were  used 
600  years  ago  to  establish  the  pennyweight,  which  then  became 
the  unit  of  weight.  This  pennyweight,  about  200  years  after- 
wards, was  divided  into  24  parts,  and  thus  produced  the  num- 
ber of  grain  weights  (24)  that  now  (providing  no  other  changes  were 
made  in  the  standard)  make  a  pennyweight.  Hence,  one  penny- 
weight (or  24  grains  in  weight)  should  now  balance  32  grains  of 
wheat,  if  wheat  still  conforms  in  size  and  weight  to  the  standard 
taken  as  an  average  of  wheat  in  the  year  1266.  In  order  to  con- 
form to  the  standard  employed  by  statute  of  Henry  VII,  100  grains 
of  wheat  should  only  weigh  75  grains. 
