138 
The  Metric  System  and 
[Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
February,  19 18. 
that  it  is  single  and  invariable.  In  the  first  place,  it  is  the  one  and 
only  system  of  science  and  exact  measurement  in  every  nation  of 
the  earth;  and  second,  it  is  known  and  recognized  in  every  civilized 
land  whether  it  is  used  commercially  or  not.  It  is  true  that  for 
certain  articles  and  commodities,  there  are  excellent  and  carefully 
observed  standards  based  on  Anglo-Saxon  and  other  measures  in 
Great  Britain  and  the  United  States,  but  in  few  cases  are  these 
standards  international  or  universal,  or  even  interchangeable  in  the 
two  nations,  and  not  always  so  in  even  one  of  these  countries,  and 
its  dependencies.  There  are  differences  in  tons  and  hundredweights, 
in  gallons,  bushels,  and  quarts,  in  wire  gauges  and  screw  threads, 
in  paper  sizes,  and  structural  shapes.  Consequently  there  are  many 
differences  in  sizes,  quantities,  and  other  standards  inevitably  based 
on  the  above,  as  well  as  those  due  to  national  and  special  practices. 
If  international  harmony  and  universal  sizes  and  quantities  are  de- 
sirable, there  must  be  secured  agreement  not  only  between  Inter- 
national and  Anglo-Saxon  weights  and  measures,  but  first  between 
the  latter  and  the  standards  based  thereon,  as  used  in  the  various 
countries  by  which  they  are  employed.  Of  course,  if  a  manufacturer 
or  merchant,  or  the  citizens  at  large,  of  a  country,  wish  to  take  a 
provincial  view  of  the  matter  of  foreign  trade  and  international 
standards,  or  even  of  national  standards,  then  there  is  nothing  to  be 
said,  and  each  nation  may  endeavor  to  defy  the  spirit  of  progress  in 
a  vain  attempt  to  force  its  own  wares  or  its  special  exports  on 
foreign  nations.  But  in  our  changing  industrial  and  international 
relations  can  any  single  nation  to-day  look  forward  to  possessing 
such  power  ten  years  from  now? 
Those  who  advocate  and  urge  the  early  adoption  of  the  metric 
system  in  the  English-speaking  countries  are  firmly  convinced  that 
in  no  way  can  this  important  movement  of  international  standardiza- 
tion and  the  cause  of  broadening  international  trade  be  more  aided  or 
further  advanced  than  by  its  general  establishment  and  use.  It  is  with 
confidence  that  they  can  claim  there  will  result  no  mechanical  chaos, 
industrial  confusion,  or  commercial  disorganization.  In  fact,  such 
claims  are  made  upon  the  premise  that  metrological  reforms,  like 
industrial  and  mechanical  progress,  are  distinctly  evolutionary  rather 
than  revolutionary  and  represent  advances  toward  the  efficient  and 
ideal.  It  is  no  more  possible  to  abolish  the  employment  of  arbitrary, 
weights  and  measures,  or  the  use  of  unstandardized  articles,  by  ex- 
ecutive decree,  or  legislative  act,  than  it  is  to  eliminate  inefficient 
