On the proposal to introduce a new grain weight / by G.E. Paget.
- Paget, Sir George Edward, 1809-1892.
- Date:
- [1862]
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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![6 The establishment of a new grain to be used for drugs alone would have the effect of making diverse what is now common between medicine and other sciences. This will not be a mere temporary incon- venience ; it will occasion an ever-recurring ambiguity. When we meet with statements of weight in grains in medical, physiological, or chemical investigations, we may be left in do\ibt which kind of grain is meant, the standard or the new grain; and this is a doubt which calculation will not solve. Besides, for the honour of medicine, is it advisable to sever any of its bonds of connexion with the more exact sciences ? Shall we not be blamed for it by men of science ? and shall we not be liable to incur ridi- cule, if, while remedying the ambiguity of the pounds and ounces, we create ambiguities of the same kind and greater in degree ? It may be added, as a minor objection, that the new grain, if it be the four-hundred-and-eightieth part of an ounce avoirdupois, will not be .91 of standard grain, but the long recurring decimal .911458333.... If the new grain be .91 standard grain, 480 new grains will not make exactly an ounce avoirdupois. The differ- ence is unimportant in the dispensing of drugs, but not so in scientific investigations; and a reform involving such an error of calculation would do little credit to medical accuracy. These are not the only objections to the proposed change. The new drachm and scruple will be dif- ferent from the drachm and scruple heretofore used. The names will be preserved, but will not have the same meaning; and hence will arise further ambigui- ties and inaccuracies. ]«77.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22272136_0009.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
