THE LITERARY PANORAMA, AND National Register: For NOVEMBER, 1814. NATIONAL and PARLIAMENTARY | in order to remunerate that labour. Art Notices, BRITISH and FOREIGN. WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. REPORT FROM THE SELECT COMMITTEE, APPOINTED BY THE HOUSE OF COMMONS TO INVESTIGATE THE SUBJECT OF WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. [Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed, July 1, 1814. If there were any thing on which the concurrence of mankind might be expected, a priori, conjecture would probably fix on the subject of measures, if not on that of weights; because it seems no more than natural to infer, that the rudiments of the former, at least, were, equally with those of number, integers in the human frame itself, and that from this original all examples would be taken throughout the world. But, we have had to record deviations from the usual number of members, in families which have şix fingers and six toes on each hand and foot-and we cannot deny the little conformity that obtains in the general heights of men of different climates and races, and in particular members which present themselves as proper to serve the purpose of measures. Precision of weight and measure is a refinement on the state of nature, and is, in fact, the offspring of commerce and calculation. When articles in their natural state were bartered against each other, there was no need to measure or weigh them, or to study greater approximation to accuracy than that connected with the estimate of the eye, by which they were considered, and relatively valued. As commodities increased to which value had been imparted by human labour, greater correctness was required VOL. I. Lit. Pan. New Srries. Nov. 1. and skill, in their progress, demanded a further extension of the principle, till at length philosophy, to answer her purposes, divided and subdivided into parts of thousands and tens of thousands, &c. the smallest of those measures which had been found anciently quite sufficient for daily use and employment. Such is the progress of intellect; it multiplied the foot into furlongs and miles-the mile into degrees; till it measured not. the earth only, but also the heavensthe distances of the planets, the sun, and the stars. It also divided the foot into inches and tenths, till the microscope marked spaces equal to the thirty thousandth of an inch; and the dimensions of moving atoms-invisible, how much less than invisible to mortal sight! were subjected to calculation and estimate. Those natural measures, taken from the bodily frame of man, nevertheless maintain themselves in the dignity of denominators at least, if not of regulators: the foot measure manifestly represents the human foot; the yard (or ancient ell) represents the length of the arm; the hand is that of the human hand; the span marks the extension of the thumb and fingers, while the digit is named after the fingers solely. Nor is this principle out of use among domestic admeasurements; for our women, when accidentally without better standards, ascertain with sufficient exactness the length of ribbands, &c. by laying them from the knuckle of the middle finger to the tip of that member (the nail,)—which is usually equal to the measure called, a nail, this they multiply into the yard, &c. Reference to the human figure, is found useful, also in more considerable measurements: for a fathom, G |