WHY SHOULD WE USE Til/ METRIC SYSTEM? 
By Edward Wiggles worth, M.D. 
Morally; ns humanitarians desiring the greatest good of 
the greatest number, whose God-given /est it is to .act well our 
partin life, thus promoting universal progress and harmony. 
Even should our selfish ends not he furthered in the least by 
the adoption of the international decimal system we should yet 
gladly adopt it if the nation as a whole is to be benefitted by 
its introduction, and of this there is no doubt. The most viru- 
lently conservative exponents of the vis inertia? of eg<*ism 
admit that “in commerce, where we are dealing with large 
quantities, and where long columns of figures, whether express- 
ing weights, measures, or money, must be added up, and the 
amount multiplied, divided, or otherwise treated as an arith- 
metical factor, the metric system is a perfect marvel of ele- 
gance and simplicity.” 
Intellectually; as broad-minded friends of progress. It 
is the paradox of education that we must build from above 
downwards. Important measures originate among the upper 
classes, which alone are fitted to comprehend the ultimate 
results of these. The benevolent despot may even educate at 
the point of the bayonet, and that at once, raising his vassals 
by intellectual platforms ; the genius of republican institutions 
demands the gradual elevation of the masses by wheedling 
them up one intellectual step after another with the proffered 
bait of immediate selfish advantage. The independent Ameri- 
can of the lower class loses several trains on the -railroad of 
progress, while being persuaded of the inferior celerity of pe- 
destrianism. John Quincy Adams, even in his day, spoke of the metric system as “the greatest invention of human inge- 
nuity since that of printing.” Charles Sumner characterized 
it as “ among the choicest possessions of an advanced civiliza- 
tion.” 
Socially; as patriotic American citizens; for, in spite of 
popular education, illiteracy is increasing faster than our popu- 
lation. It has been calculated by large committees of our 
ablest teachers that the complete introduction of the metric 
system will save a full year of the school-life of every child, 
and this year thus saved would be enough to turn the scale. In 
a country depending for the safety of its free institutions upon 
the education of the people this fact is of vital importance. 
The introduction of this system would be desirable, if only as 
the most rapid method of obtaining the most correct results 
even were we subsequently to change the denomination of 
these results back into the old denominations. 
Practically, as economical, common-sense men, the system 
being the most accurate, consistent, and convenient one known; 
simpler than others as our money is simpler than pounds, shil- 
lings, and pence; multiplying and dividing by a mere shifting 
of the decimal point to the right or left; giving finer subdivi- 
sions than other systems, and saving money in business to such 
an extent that competent authorities computed that the London 
and Northwestern Railway alone would annually save £10,000 
sterling by the use, in all its computations, of the metric instead 
of the old system. IIow vast, then, would be the saving in the 
entire business of the country! In 1860 the foreign business 
of the United States equalled $762,000,000. Of this, $700,- 
000,000 was with nations using the metric system, and that, too, 
before Germany had adopted it. 
There are no tables, scales, or complicated relations, the 
meter measuring every possible dimension, the liter every 
capacity, the gram every weight In the old systemless system 
of many and various units the multiple might be 20, 3, 8, 12, 
5&, etc. Even single weights varied among themselves, 
as e.g. long and short avoirdupois weight. 
So with measures of capacity. A barrel of fish is 30 gallons ; one of ale, 31 i; one of eider, 32; one of beer, 27; etc. 
Bread is sold by troy weight, butter by avoirdupois. Drug- 
gists buy by one and sell by another and a different table of 
weights. With the exception of measurements of time, which 
are unalterable, being natural divisions fixed by the revolutions 
of the earth, there is none to which this system is not applic- 
able, whether of weight, length, surface, solid contents, angles, 
values, intensities, or forces. 
Philosophically; as accepting the inevitable, for the metric sys- 
tem is sure to come, and we shall never be better prepared to 
make the change than now. We must use it as a means of ed- 
ucation, not as a result to which we are to grow by degrees. 
Every civilized nation has adopted it, except Russia, which has 
been delayed only by her war, and England, which never makes 
any change until forced. She was four hundred years behind 
the continent in adopting our present arithmetic! Yet, even in 
England it is legalized, and makes annual progress in the 
British Parliament. Our scientific men all advocate it. Our 
Congress has legalized it. Large manufacturers and merchants 
in foreign trade use it more than is generally known. Civil 
engineers, architects, and chemists employ it. It is exclusively 
used by the U. S. Coast Survey and the U. S. Marine Hospital 
Service. 
The American Medical Association and the medical societies 
of the leading States have recommended it most cordially by 
resolutions, and, finally, should we delay long, commerce with, 
and immigration from, foreign countries will force it upon us. 
Moreover, it is practically indestructible, whereas the standard 
weights of Great Britain were destroyed by fire in 1834. There 
are twenty-seven standards of the metric system in different 
countries, the United States possessing one. These are exactly 
alike, from a single casting of ten parts of iridium and ninety of 
platinium. Nothing short of a cosmic convulsion could destroy 
all of these at once. 
Professionally; as physicians; because this system most 
nearly approximates to a perfect one, embodying, as it does, the 
most careful and delicate work of the International Metric Com- mission, composed of scientific men from all countries. Be- 
cause it is international; and medicine is as cosmopolitan as 
human nature itself. 
Because of its great convenience in writing and compounding 
prescriptions, in dividing doses and in computing quantities re- 
quired during given times. Because of its safety due to its 
uniformity and simplicity. It may be learned in five minutes. 
In complexity there is always danger and the resemblance of 
the signs of the scruple, drachm and ounce has more than once 
proved fatal to human life. The metric system dispenses with 
the signs of the quantities, employs Arabic figures instead of 
Roman numerals and assures the physician of more competent 
service because from more educated pharmacists, such being 
always the first to adopt it. It is decimal, and a perpendicular 
line instead of the decimal points obviates any possibility of 
error from this source. It is allied to the change already made 
by Americans from pounds, shillings and pence to dollars and 
cents. 
Because of its delicacy and accuracy for the chemist and the 
pharmacist, and here the beauty of the system is especially ap- 
parent, for it provides denominations of weights applicable to 
the smallest quantity which the physician can prescribe, the old 
grain being by far too large and coarse a unit for modern 
medicine. 
Moreover, the English and American graduates are both in 
use in this country, and yet are not alike. There is a differ- 
ence of eighteen grains in the weights of their fluid ounces. 
Then, too, if f is omitted before the ounce symbol either the 
graduate or the troy ounce may be used. 
Finally, because it deals preferably with weights alone, while 
admitting the use, if desired, of both weights and measures as 
at present.