Untitled

New Zealand Mail, Issue 914, 6 September 1889, Page 24

The Metric System. —At a recent meeting of the French Academy of Sciences, M. do Malarce, speaking of the extension of the metric system of weights and measures, made the astounding statement that only about 42,000,000 of the inhabitants of the civilised world have systems which are neither metric nor decimal. In 1887 the aggregate population of the countries in which the metric system was compulsory was over 302.000,000, being an increase of 53,000,000 in 10 years. In 18S7, in countries with a population of close on 97,000,000, the use of the system was optional ; and the countries where the metric system is legally admitted in principle and partially applied (as in Russia, Turkey, and British India) had in 18S7 a population of 395,000,000, being an increase of 54,000,000 in 10 years. The increase is due to the growth of population in the countries which had already adopted the system, and to its adoption by new countries. The systems oi China, Japan, and Mexico are decimal, but not metric. The metric system is thus -legally recognised by 794,000,000 of people, and the three last named countries have a population of about 474,000,0C0. In a recent address to the Royal In. stitute of London, Sir Henry Roscoe illustrated the amount of colouring power stored in coal by tables showing that one pound of the mineral yields magenta sufficient to colour 500 yards of flannel, aurine for 120 yards of .flannel, 27 inches wide, vermilline scarlet for 2560 yards of flannel, or alizarin for 255 yardo of Turkey red cloth.