of the eye is sufficient to divide material substances into successive halves, fourths, eighths, and sixteenths. A slight attention will give thirds, sixths, and twelfths. But divisions into fifth and tenth parts are amongst the most difficult that can be performed without the aid of calculation." "To the common mass of the people the use of weights is in the market and the shops. The article weighed is to be carried home for the daily subsistence of the family. Subdivisions of the pound, the half, the quarter of a pound, are often necessary to conciliate the wants and the means of the neediest portion of the people, that portion to whom the justice of weight and measure is a necessity of life, and to whom it is one of the most sacred duties of the legislator to secure that justice, so far as it can be secured by the operation of human institutions. The transition state in France caused fraud on the scanty pittance of the poor. Small dealers in groceries and liquors gave the people ⅕ klo. for ½ lb., and ⅕ of a litre for the ½ setier. The decimal division became snares to the honesty of the seller, and cheats upon the wants of the buyer."
CHAPTER V.
Inconvenience of the Metric Unit.
Adams, starting off with a leaning to the metric system, found himself face to face with the inescapable conclusion that the British system was the best. His clear vision penetrated the flimsy pretensions of the supposedly
