, 1863-08-27
Il Plea for the Dozen,

It is proposed In England to adopt the dec
ima1 system In weights, measure. and coins,
We would think that few objections could be
raised against such 4 chauge~ hut school,
master writes to London newspaper an
Ingenious plea for the retention Of tnelye
He says: -.
"Though not descended from a slx.flngered
family, The EnRlishmon uniformly reckons bY
the dozen. His very earthly existence is
measured By his fayorite number, At twelve
be is in the thorough enjoyment Of mere be-
ing; at twice twelve, IN the full ylgor Of men-
tai and corporal maturity: md at three times
twelve ,at high-tide of domestic happiness.
At four times twelve he has reached :hc OK.
t1eme yerge Of the table land Of life; at five
times twelve he has touched, or nearly so, his
grand clflnacteric, thinks Of his latter end.
and makes his will, and at half dozen times
. dozen be is gathered to his fathers. Shirts
for his back, buttons for his coat, and nails
for his coffin arc manufactured and sold all
wine cellar to the rapery- closet, with articles
p1r dozen. BE arms bis sl1ips with GUNS, reg.
ulates the weight Of their balls in pounds. and
and administers discipline to those that work
them all per dozen. ue fearlessly commits
his property, bis fame and bis Life, to twe1ge
ure for small ttiogs is his thumb, 4 dozen Of
which lie calls foot; and his commonest
coin Is shilling, which he breaks into doz-
en- Of pence. Rather than use power Of ten
he adds dozen to the one hundred pounds,
and calls that one hundred cwt. He iudites
his lncnbrations On elips Of twelve, Or quircs
Of twice twelve sheets, with metallic pens as
sorted per dozen, aud publishes his opinions,
It he writes for the press, In 'folios Of four
pageB;' # ftllow Of learned society, in
quarto If on the staff OF review or nlaga-
zina, In octave; If he works for the millioh,
In twelyes-neEcr in decades. Homer is diyl.
ga ga into twice tFelyc books; Virgil. aud
to give twelve books, each Of twelyc cautos,
and another noble poet Gays
"I'yc fniehcd now
Two hundred and odd st1nzas as before,
That being nbout the number nl]ow
Each canto Of the twelve or tHcnty-four,"
"Ihe year (irom the division Of the zodi.
&C, Of tmmemorial antiquity is divided into
twelve months-the day and the night into
twelve hours each; and not even the French,
when ut their maddest they abolished the re-.
lgious week, Tentured to unbind the fascIcu-
lu5 Of the months and hours. lQorgunic mat
ter has declared against decima1s, tor the dis
crcpancies between the authorities for the
atomic weights Of the chemical elements arc
greater than their average would be from the
nearcet multiple. or submultlp1e Of the dozen.
Had We eingle marks for 10 and II, our
language and our notation would be complete
In the duo1ecimal scale; aud when the great
body Of the people arc educated and taugh:
arithmetic intelligtntly, and not by e1npIIic
rules and formula, the traaalation to that
scale will most certainly come.
In the meantime, to force the decimal
sca1c on nation which, By the Hight Of M.
tnlc, has pronounced SO Enthusiastically against
1t (not one unit in the popular measure of
space, time, weight, or valuc being divided or
rf iraanffv'3