decagrammes, hectogrammes, and kilogrammes. The unit of
capacity is the _litre_, divided and multiplied like the others.

1 inch equals 2-1/2 centimetres.
1 foot equals 3 decimetres.
1 mile equals 1-3/5 kilometres.
1 cwt. equals 50.8 kilogrammes.
1 ounce (troy) equals 31 grammes.
1 pound (troy) equals 3.72 decagrammes.
1 gallon equals 4-1/2 litres.
1 quart equals 1-1/16 litres.
1 metre equals 39.37 inches.
1 hectometre equals 109-1/3 yards.
1 cubic metre equals 61,027 cubic inches.
1 kilometre equals 1,093 yards.
1 decigramme equals 1-1/2 grains.
1 gramme equals 15 grains.
1 kilogramme equals 2-1/5 pounds (avoirdupois).
1 litre equals 1-3/4 pints.

To turn inches into millimetres add the figures 00 to the number of
inches, divide by 4, and add the result two-fifths of the original
number of inches.

To turn millimetres to inches add the figure 0 and divide by 254.

To make cubic inches into cubic centimetres multiply by 721 and divide
by 44; cubic centimetres into cubic inches multiply by 44 and divide by
721.

To turn grains into grammes, multiply the number by 648 and divide the
product by 10,000.

To turn grammes into grains, multiply by 10,000, dividing the result by
648.

The metric system is especially useful in our local jewellery and other
trades, but it is very slowly making its way against the old English
foot and yaid, even such a learned man as Professor Rankine poking fun
at the foreign measures in a comic song of which two verses run:--

Some talk of millimetres, and some of kilogrammes,
And some of decillitres to measure beer and drams;
But I'm an English workman, too old to go to school,
So by pounds I'll eat, by quarts I'll drink, and work by my two-foot
rule.

A party of astronomers went measuring of the earth,
And forty million metres they took to be its girth;
Five hundred million inches now go through from pole to pole,
So we'll stick to inches, feet, and yards, and our own old two-foot
rule.

~Mid-England.~--Meriden, near Coventry, is believed to be about the
centre spot of England.

~Midland Institute.~--Suggestions of some such an institution, to take
the place of the defunct Mechanics', had several time appeared in print,
but nothing definite was done in the matter until the subject was
discussed (June 4, 1852) over the dinner table of Mr. Arthur Ryland.
Practical shape being given to the ideas then advanced, a town's meeting
on Dec. 3, 1853,