On the proposal to introduce a new grain weight / by G.E. Paget.

  • Paget, Sir George Edward, 1809-1892.
Date:
[1862]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the proposal to introduce a new grain weight / by G.E. Paget. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    and the more so when it will inevitably introduce ambiguity and confusion of the most perplexing kind : for, in pathological or physiological investigations two different sets of weights will be equally liable to be used, and the reader of the published results will be perpetually left in doubt as to which had been employed—a doubt which he will have no means of solving. Moreover, the object attained by the change is no adequate compensation for the attendant and per- manent inconveniences. The change is not a neces- sary consequence of adopting the avoirdupois ounce in place of the troy ounce. This desirable change in the ounces may be made without any interference whatever with the use of the standard grain in pharmacy. I confess I can scarcely believe that a step which has so obvious a tendency to dissociate medical from other sciences, and which will certainly introduce a fresh element of confusion into medical writings, can be deliberately sanctioned by the Medical Council and supported by their authority. G. E. P. Cambridge, June \Zth, 1862.