The record-union., 1896-08-23

SltlOn in opposition to these ideas, and
very vigorously assailed the metric sys-
tenn so far as it's general application
complaint of the distinguished scientist
is that the metric system is defective in
the divisibility of its units into halves
and thirds. He holds that the present
English systems are better for the
convenience of ordinary commerce. He
goes SO far as to claim that the decimal
system which we have in the United
States is yielding, because it is cum
brous, and that it is being displaced by
one that divides into halves and quar-
ters instead of tenths.
Mr.. Spencer's charge has been chal-
lenged by Professor Slosson of the Wyo-
ming University, who claims that the
tendency is all the other way. In our
opinion, he makes an unanswerable
reply to Spencer, in the course of which
he says:
We may first note the prevailing ten
dency in the division of units of length.
IN land surveying, where a change of
the mode of measurement causes more
inconvenience than elsewhere, the ad-
Vantages of the decimal system are SO
strongly felt that hundreds of feet and
tenths of a mile and a foot are being
used to a considerable extent instead
OF rods and inches. This is true, think,
to a greater degree in the West than in
CT IN, nOh
is more usual to estimate a distance as,
say, sixty feet or 200 feet, than in yards
or rods The division of the foot into
tenths has come into use in spite of the
Inconvenience of a unit so nearly like
the inch, yet so difficult to reduce to it.
The subdivision of the inch into
tWelfths originally in vogue is almost
unused, While tenths of an inch are su-
perseding not only the line, but also
the fractions, of quarter, eighth and
sixteenth. Fine measurements are more
often expressed in hundredths of an
inch, and even where the old terms are
used in speech they are often written
80 or .125. This change has been made
not by scientists, but by machinists and
practical men, who have most occa-
sion to use such measurements
The professor then points out that in
arithmetical operations we more and
more use decinals and less and less
vulgar fractions; that our business men
think in per cents, and the readers of
newspapers nowadays are compelled to
read in per cents, no matter what the
subject debated or fact stated is.
Though Sir Bramwell insists that the
decimal system is incompatible with
mental arithemetic, the fact is that the
ordinary man in these days does use
it, and if proposition in vulgar frac-
tions is given him he changes it into
decimals before seeking the solution of
the example.
In many schools of the country our
children are now taught the use of
decimals before they hear anything
about vulgar fractions. In market and
store trade the people are abandoning
old systems of dozens and half-dozens,
mails Even vegetables are now mostly
sold and parceled decimally, the goods
being put up in packages of five, ten,
fifteen and twenty, instead of packages
Of three, six, twelve and twenty-four.
All this makes the pricing of an article
a great deal easier and more rapid.
Concerning the objection that it is
difficult to obtain one-third of the
higher units, it is greater, Professor
Slosson contends, in the common sys-
TENS of weights and measures. For in
customer wants a third of kilogram
He will simply pile IS and Is of each de-
nomination on his scale pan until the
weight is reached within the limits OF
the delicacy of his scales. But what
is he to do If he is asked for a third of a
| pound? If calculation under our pres
ent system is as easy as it is claimed to
| be, he could get the weight by laying on
his scale pan five ounces, five drains
nine and eleven -ninety-sixths grains
which is but a makeshift third.
As to the British monetary notation
being as simple as our own, Professor
Slosson says:
If the English accountant" can add
guineas, pounds, shillings, pence and
farthings as rapidly as an American ac-
eountant can add dollars and cents, II
must be because the greater difficulty OF
his task has caused a greater mental
development If Sir Frederick Bran
well can calculate by mental arithmetic
how many grains of water there are il
q gallon as quickly as a child can tel
how many grams there are in liter he
| is indeed mathematician.
It seems that the English in spite OF
their national genius for devising in
! commensurate units, are moving as
fast in the matter of adopting better
| system Of weights and measures as the
Americans, and we may put faith ever
f, In the prophecy made by Matthew Ar
g4old in one of his optimistic moods, that
The time viii yet come in England wher
the fact that an institution is an an
Jqnaly will be regarded as an objection
no. an advantage.
A BAREFOOT REMEDY.