Am  jour.  Pharm.  \      International  Standardization. 
February,  1918.  J 
133 
of  every  system  of  international  standards  now  or  later  to  be  estab- 
lished. Today  minute  and  precise  measurements  and  exact  de- 
terminations practically  invariably  are  in  the  metric  system  or  are 
related  to  it,  because  that  system  is  the  universal  and  only  system  of 
the  scientist  and  investigator.  This  is  the  case  because  workers  in 
pure  and  exact  science  long  since  have  appreciated  the  advantages 
that  not  only  are  appropriate  to  the  metric  system  itself,  but  are 
characteristic  of  an  international  and  interchangeable  system  of 
weights  and  measures.  Inasmuch  as  any  system  of  standards  must 
depend  upon  exact  determinations  and  precise  measurements,  and  as 
the  units,  standards,  and  methods  of  such  precise  measurements  and 
determinations  employed  by  the  scientific  man  are  metric,  it  is 
inevitable  that  they  should  figure  in  the  initial  and  basic  work  in 
practically  all  cases,  whatever  the  nationality  of  the  investigator. 
This  is  true  not  only  because  the  metric  system  is  the  system  of 
the  research  laboratory,  but  because  it  is  known  and  understood  by 
engineers  and  technical  men  the  world  over.  Furthermore,  the 
special  advantages  of  the  metric  system  must  be  considered  in  rela- 
tion to  problems  of  standardization.  It  is  the  simplest  system,  start- 
ing with  fundamental  units  of  length  and  of  mass.  It  is  represented 
by  appropriate  standards  of  the  highest  scientific  integrity  and  in- 
variability. It  is  a  complete  and  comprehensive  system,  for  all- 
forms  of  measurement  can  be  developed,  and  it  can  be  utilized  in 
the  definition  of  all  forms  of  standards  without  recourse  to  arbitrary 
units  or  standards.  And  while  the  work  of  the  metrologist  involve 
ing,  as  it  does,  measurements  as  minute  as  the  wave  length  of  light, 
may  seem  but  little  related  to  the  ordinary  processes  of  manufactur- 
ing and  engineering,  yet  the  character  of  the  prototype  standards 
representing  the  units  and  the  secondary  and  subordinate  standards 
through  which  the  general  accuracy  of  any  system  of  weights  and 
measures  is  maintained,  is  by  no  means  negligible.  In  the  inter- 
national metric  system,  the  original  standards  have  been  determined 
and  established  as  regards  their  accuracy,  invariability,  and  perma- 
nence with  greater  precision  than  those  of  any  other  system,  and 
what  is  more,  they  are  interrelated  with  various  national  and  other 
standards  by  the  most  intimate  connections  possible  to  modern  sci- 
ence. The  superiority  of  this  interrelated  system  of  metric  standards 
to  all  others  and  especially  to  the  Anglo-Saxon  standards  is  so  great 
that  officially  in  the  United  States  since  April  5,  1893,  the  customary 
units  are  determined  by  their  relation  to  the  metric  standards,  and 
