New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1884-01-18
THE RATTLE OF THE STANDARDS.

THE INTERNA rIONAL STANDARD. Magazine de-
x%sias So Weights ana Measures and the dis
cussion and dissemination OF the Wisdom contained
in the Great Pyramid Of Jeezeh In Egypt Cleveland
and Boston.
The Scotch Astronomer Royal. Professor Piazzi
Smythe wrote book some years ago entitled Our
Inheritance in the Great Pyramid" in which he
labored to demonstrate that the monument in ques-
ton contained a word-StandaTd of measures. lden-
tical with the British inch, and that 1t also pre-
served the most precise astronomical and coSmlc
records and calculations. together with prophetic
testimonials intended to vindicate and confirm the
text of the Bible. Professor Smythe was converted
to these beliefs by John Taylor, the English archie
olocist who wrote the first book calling attention
10 the marvels supposed to be contained in the
Great Pyramid. The discussion of the questions
thus raised resulted in the organization OF a body
railing itself the International Institute for Pre-
serving and Perfecting Weights and Measures" and
this Institute publishes the magazine whose title Is
piyen above The object aimed at Is the defeat OF
the attempt to secure the adoption Ill the United
States of the French metric system; and ut the
same time TO perfect and establish more hrmy the
Anglo-SaxOn system.
The Institute holds with Professor Smythe. that
the Great Pyramid represents all the wisdom of the
ancents and that it constructed for the pur-
pose of preserving these records and enabling man
kind to avoid the demOralzing influence of the
French metric system. The methods pursued in pre-
senting these views to the public are from the ma
tre of the case of kind to astOnish the unpreparcd
inquirer for The admixture of Biblical arguments
and deductions with mathematical and purely
technical considerations produces somewhat be-
wildering whole The arguments advanced in be-
half of the Anglo-SaxOn standard of weights and
measures are naturally strongest where they
based upon practical positions The question of
convenience is of course that which in the long is
most likely to determine dispute of this kind, and
the fact that nearly all the mechanical work done
by ffty-two millions of people is based on the
Anglo-Saxon standard promises to have more
weight in the settlement of the case than all the
supposed anaogies of Professor Smythe and his
pupils. This is tho more true inasmuch as the
positions of Professor Smythe in regard to Pyramid
measurements and uses disputed and denied by
many learned Psychologists and accepted by CON-
paratively few of those whose familiarity with the
matter in controversy renders their opinions
authoritative. Professor De Morgan put Professor
Smythe's book on the Great Pyramid into his
Budget of ParadOxes" along with the squarers of
the circle and the discoveries of perpetual motion,
and there can be no doubt that he would have done
the same with the magazine under review.
OF course il does not follow that the Institute is
on a wrong scent So long as the Great Pyramid re-
mains mystery it must be impossible to disprove
can be shown that the analogies drawn from its
measurements are entirely fanciful But since it is
clearly possible TO deduce similar analoges from
almost any measurements, if they are taken with
set purpose 10 subseTve prec0nceiVed hypothesis,
scientific men have for the most part declined to
recognize the peculiar views taken by Professor
smythe and his school, Nevertheless there is
great deal of very good writing in " The Interna-
tiona Standard" and several engineers and astron-
omers discuss pyramidal and allied subjects with
learning and enthusiasm. We understand that an
expedition to Egypt is contemplated by the lnsti-
tute for the purpose of measuring the Great Pyra-
mid again. and meantime earnest efforts are beng
made to prevent Congress from adopting the French
metric system which is objected to not only on the
ground that it is less convenient than its rival. but
on the ground that it is an atheistic SYSTEM. The
magazine is well printed. and occasionally contains
n good portrait. There is such an one of President
Garfield who was member of the Institute.
EXCURSIONS OF AN EyoLUTI0NIsT. BY JOHN
FlsKE Boston, Eoughton, Mifain a Co. PIP. 379.
Mr. Fiske has q happy knack of clarifying and
restatinQ the discussions and speculatons of moro
original thinkers. He possesses a singularly lucid
style and no one Is better fitted to pOpuarze those
nbilosophic and scientific ideas which are sometimes
obscured foi the many by the terms in which they
are stated In this volume he has collected num-
Der of essays which, or most of which, have already
been published in various periodicals. The iirst SIX