values is to be adopted? Is it by the advice of those who spend their lives in weighing and measuring and receiving payments for goods? Is it that the men who alone are concerned in portioning out commodities of one or other kind to customers and who have every minute need for using this or that division or sub-division of weights or measures, have demanded to use the decimal system? Far from it. I venture to say that in no case has the retail trader been consulted. There lies before me an imposing list of the countries that have followed the lead of France. It is headed 'Progress of the Metric System.' It might fitly have been headed Progress of Bureaucratic Coercion.' When fifty years after its nominal establishment in France, the metric system was made compulsory, it was not because those who had to measure out commodities over the counter wished to use it, but because the Government commanded them to do so; and when it was adopted in Germany under the Bismarckian régime, we may be sure that the opinions of shopkeepers were not asked. Similarly elsewhere, its adoption has resulted from the official will, and not from the popular will. Why has this happened? For an answer we must go back to the time of the French Revolution, when scientific men were entrusted with the task of forming a rational system of weights, measures and values for universal use. The idea was a great one, and, allowing for the fundamental defect on which I have been insisting it was admirably carried out. As this defect does not diminish its great convenience for scientific purposes, the system has been gradually adopted by scientific men all over the world, the great advantage being that measurements registered by a scientific man of one nation are without any trouble made intelligible to men of other nations. "Evidently moved by the desire for human welfare at large, scientific men have been of late years urging that the metric system should be made universal, in the belief that immense advantages, like they themselves find, will be found by all who are engaged in trade. Here comes in the error. They have identified two quite different requirements. For what purpose does the man of science use the metric system? For processes of measurement. For what purpose is the trader to use it? For processes of measurement plus processes of exchange. This additional element alters the problem essentially. It matters not to a chemist whether the volumes he specifies in cubic-centimetres or the weights he gives in grammes, are or are not easily divided with exactness. Whether the quantity of liquids or gases which the physicist states in litres can or cannot be readily divided into aliquot parts is indifferent. And to the morphologist or microscopist who write down dimensions in sub-divisions of the metre, the easy divisibility of the lengths he states is utterly irrelevant. But it is far otherwise with the man who all day long Spencer here refers to the adoption of the decimal in lieu of the duodecimal system. 666 has to portion out commodities to customers and receive money in return. To satisfy the various wants of those multitudes whose purchases are in small quantities, he needs measures that fall into easy divisions and a coinage which facilitates calculation and the giving of change. Force him to do his business in tenths and he will inevitably be impeded. But you forget that the metric system is approved by many mercantile men, and that its adoption is urged by Chambers of Commerce.' No, I have not forgotten; and if I had I should have been reminded of the fact by the fears now expressed that our commerce will suffer if we do not follow in the steps of sundry other nations. The fears are absurd. French and German merchants when sending goods to England, find no difficulty in marking them or invoicing them in English measures. And if English merchants imply that they are too stupid to follow the example in a converse way, they can scarcely expect to be believed." MEETINGS FOR THE ENSUING WEEK. MONDAY, DEC 17...SOCIETY OF ARTS, John-street, Adelphi, W.C., 8 p.m. (Cantor Lectures.) Mr. A. D. Hall, "Artificial Fertilisers: their Nature and Functions." (Lecture V.) University of London, South Kensington, S. W., 8 p.m. Geographical, University of London, Burlington- British Architects, 9, Conduit-street, W., 8 p.m. Actuaries, Staples-inn-hall, Holborn. 5 p.m. TUESDAY, DEC. 18. SOCIETY OF ARTS, John-street. Statistical, 9, Adelphi terrace, Strand, W.C., 5 p.m. Pathological, 20, Hanover-square, W., 83 p.m. Mr. Oliver G. Pike, "In Birdland with a Camera." WEDNESDAY, DEC. 19...SOCIETY OF ARTS, John-street. Microscopical, 20, Hanover-square, W., 8 p.m. others, "The 8 p.m. 1. Dr. A. B. Rendle and "Botanical Results of the Third Tanganyika Expedition, 1904-5." 2. Mr. F. Chapman, (1)Fossil Foraminifera of Victoria "; (2. Balcombian Deposits of Port Philip." Chemical, Burlington-house, W., 83 p.m. 1 Mr. F. R. I. Wilson, "A New Laboratory Method for the Preparation of Hydrogen Sulphide." 2. Mr. V. H. Veley, The Reaction of Acids with Methyl Orange." 3. Mr. H. Bassett, jun., "Contributions to the Study of the Calcium Phosphates. (i.) The Hydrates of the Calcium Hydrogen Orthophosphates. (i.) The Action of Ammonia Gas on the Calcium Hydrogen Orthophosphates." Electrical Engineers, 25, Great George - street, FRIDAY, DEC. 14...North-East Coast Institute of Engineers and Shipbuilders, Newcastle-on-Tyne, 7 p.m. Botanic, Inner Circle, Regent's-park, N. W., 31 p.m. Quekett Microscopical Club, 20, Hanover-square, W.C., 8 p.m. All communications for the Society should be addressed to the Secretary, John-street, Adelphi, W.C. NOTICES. JUVENILE LECTURES. The usual short course of lectures adapted for a juvenile audience will be delivered on Wednesday afternoons, January 2nd and 9th, at 5 o'clock, by BENNETT H. BROUGH, F.G.S., F.I.C., F.C.S., on " Perils and Adventures Underground." Each Member is entitled to a ticket admitting two children and an adult. A sufficient number of tickets to fill the room will be issued to been reprinted from the Journal, and the pamphlet (price one shilling) can be obtained on application to the Secretary, Society of Arts, John-street, Adelphi, London, W.C. A full list of the Cantor Lectures which have been published separately, and are still on sale, can be obtained on application. LIST OF MEMBERS. The new edition of the List of Members of the Society is now ready and can be obtained Members in the order in which applications by members on application to the Secretary. are received. Members who desire tickets for the course are requested to apply for them at once. PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY. CANTOR LECTURES. Mr. A. D. HALL, Director of the Lawes Agricultural Trust, delivered on Monday evening, 17th inst., the fifth and last lecture of his course on “Artificial Fertilisers: their Nature and Functions." On the motion of the CHAIRMAN, a vote of thanks for his valuable course of lectures was carried unanimously. The first lecture will be published in the next number of the Journal. APPLIED ART SECTION. Tuesday evening, December 18; LEWIS FOREMAN DAY, F.S.A., Vice-President of the Society, in the chair. The paper read was "Basket-making," by THOMAS OKEY, The paper and discussion will be published in a future number of the Journal. CANTOR LECTURES ON IVORY. Mr. Alfred Maskell's Cantor Lectures on "Ivory, in Commerce and in the Arts," have COLONIAL SECTION. Tuesday afternoon, December 4th; the RIGHT HON. VISCOUNT MILNER, G.C.B., G.C.M.G., in the chair. on The CHAIRMAN said he had very great pleasure in calling upon Sir Lewis Michell to read his paper "The Cape to Cairo Railway." Having regard to the composition of the meeting, he thought that the author required no introduction. There was probably no man better qualified to deal with the subject on which Sir Lewis was about to address the audience. He had not only an almost lifelong acquaintance with Africa, but he was also the intimate friend of that great man by whom the idea of the Cape to Cairo Railway was originated, and he was probably as intimately acquainted as anyone now living with the work and the aspirations of Mr. Rhodes. The author, therefore, came before them with very special qualifications. He also desired to be permitted to add, what was known to many, but perhaps not all present, although it would soon be discovered by them, that Sir Lewis was the master of a literary style which was calculated to give attraction and charm to subjects even less attractive in themselves than that about which he was going to speak. The paper read was CAPE TO CAIRO RAILWAY. BY THE HON. SIR LEWIS MICHELL. You have been good enough to invite me to read a paper on the subject of the Cape to Cairo Railway as projected by the late Mr. Rhodes. I understand that his friend and ours, Sir Charles Metcalfe, was at one time to have addressed you on the same subject, but was prevented by illness, a fact I deplore for its own sake and also because it transfers the task to one so obviously inferior as myself. I cannot, of course, deal with it from an engineering point of view as Sir Charles is [so well qualified to do, but while steering clear or figures and statistics, interesting in themselves but too professional for my powers, I venture to lay before you to-night a few general considerations which seem to me to elucidate the aims and objects of the great scheme. It is, I know, assumed in some quarters that the idea of such a railway is what the Book of Common Prayer calls a vain thing, fondly invented," but there is one striking peculiarity about the dreams of the great founder of Rhodesia, that while he dreamt he was generally very wide awake. There are many dreamers in this world whose dreams, however delightful in themselves, come to nothing because they are unpractical; there are also many solid practical business men who leave little mark upon their age because, lacking imagination, they are unable to dream at all. The exceptional man who achieves great things, generally combines the power of dreaming with the practical instincts necessary to enable him to translate his dreams into performances. And of such was Mr. Rhodes. The Cape to Cairo Railway is no unsubstantial dream but a reality, in advance of its age if you like, but still a reality, and already, in great part, an accomplished fact. As I am not supposed to be dealing this afternoon with that other section of our great pioneering work, the African Transcontinental Telegraph Company, I will content myself with saying here that, after several initial difficulties, the wires have been erected for no less than 1,584 miles. Leaving the Mashonaland Railway at Umtali, it follows the eastern boundary of South Rhodesia, traverses Portuguese East Africa, crossing the Zambesi low down at Tete, serving the well-known missionary station of the Scotch Church at Blantyre, and running through the coffeegrowing districts of the Shiré Highlands to Fort Johnston-so named after Sir Harry Johnston-and then onward though the entire length of the British Central Africa Protectorate, touching at many rising villages on the shores of Lake Nyasa as far as Karonga, then westward to Fife and Abercorn, the latter the most northerly point in North-East Rhodesia, and called, of course, after the present Duke, a member, I believe, of this Society, and a loyal and steady supporter of Mr. Rhodes and all his great plans for the civilisation of a continent. From Abercorn the line enters foreign territory, and winding in and out close alongside the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika, terminates at Ujiji, that historic spot where Stanley found the long-lost Livingstone-a spot which, I say it with regret, though ours by right of discovery, is no longer within our own sphere of influence. Further than this the wire cannot go, except on onerous terms and by permission of Germany; but even in its unfinished state it serves many public and private interests, assists in the preservation of law and order, and is of great and growing commercial value. It is not so many years ago in point of time that Livingstone and Möhr, Speke and Grant, Baines and, above all, Stanley, roused public interest in the problems and populations of Central Africa. Their journeys were mainly east and west. But what Mr. Kipling well calls the immense and brooding spirit of Mr. Rhodes saw, as in a vision, that civilisation and the trade that follows in its train, might with perhaps greater advantage be introduced into the heart of the Dark Continent from south to north. And instead of resting content with the transient passage of the adventurous explorer and mighty hunter who traversed the pathless forests and unfrequented solitudes of Africa, hatchet and rifle in hand, but left no permanent trace of their footsteps behind them, Mr. Rhodes conceived the nobler but the more practical dream of penetrating the ancient and mysterious continent once and for ever, by laying down from the shores of Table Bay to the blue waters of the Mediterranean, that twin steel rail which has done for the modern world what the great Roman roads did for Europe nearly 2,000 years ago. At what date the idea first occurred to him may, perhaps, never be known, for he was a silent man, not addicted to correspondence, and accustomed to much deep thinking before taking decisive action. But |