Book Description

Excerpt from The Australasian Journal of Pharmacy, Vol. 34: With Which Is Incorporated the Australasian Chemist and Druggist; 20th October, 1919 Inere have been many changes In other things since then, but not in numbers. The duodecimal scale remains the most convenient, because it avoids fractions. The only excuse for adopting the metric system is to secure uniformity, but it was a deliberate Object Of the founders Of the metric system to invent something which should have no relation to any existing system of measurement. They deliberately took a fraction Of a quadrant Of the meridian. And called It a 'metre.' The standard 15 purely arbitrary, and would only be useful if the measurement of the circumference of the earth were one Of the daily occupations of life. When we have divided it or multiplied It by 10 and its multiples, we can seldom express any part Of it without running into decimal fractions, and writing down an array of figures not easy to remember. The English 'yard' represents 36 inches, or 432 lines. We can divide it by 2, 3, 4, 6, 9, or 12, and have always a whole number, and when we have divided it by 12, it gives us 36 lines, or 3 inches, which are again divisible by the same numbers. This is not only practical, but scientific. In the apothe caries' scale, we have the ounce, which contains 480 grains. This Is divisible by 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10 and 12. We have the drachm of 60 grains. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.