20 NOVEMBER 1920, Page 20

The Metric Committee appointed by the Conjoint Board of Scientific

Societies to consider whether the metric system should be compulsorily adopted in this country reported against the proposal. Its Report (Royal Society, Is. net) is a very lucid Statement of the arguments for and against the metric system and contains some useful suggestions for simplifying our weights and measures and encouraging the concurrent use of metric and British units in statistics. The Committee is strongly opposed to any interference with our coinage. It rejects the favourite theory that children would learn arithmetic more easily if we had only a decimal system. The Committee would however, make the use of the metric system compulsory "with , as little delay as possible" in the fine chemical and drug trade and in prescriptions.