492 THE NATIONAL COLLECTION OF TYPE CULTURES.

Prescribing by the Metric System.THE advantages of the metric system hav

frequently been put forward, and though in manbranches of science the system has now securedfirm foothold, yet medicine, so far as clinical work i

concerned, lags behind, apparently reluctant to makthe experiment. The reasons for this apathy havoften been discussed with a certain degree of amuse.interest. The well-known conservative spirit, whielactuates the older members of the medical professionhas been alleged to be the chief factor, even thoug]this might he regarded as a polite method of indicatin,that, having learnt the art of prescribing in one waya spirit of inertia renders them unwilling to discar(and scrap their knowledge in favour of what may be Imore excellent way. A second suggestion has beerthat the dispenser might conceivably be delayed in hiiwork if confronted in quick succession by prescriptions on the metric and on the Imperial system; an(it has even been thought that while such trouble Iconfronted the fully trained pharmaceutical chemistthere would be others who were not acquainted witlthe metric system, and would therefore floundeihopelessly in face of difficulties.Many misconceptions were removed by Dr. W. C,

SILLAR in a paper on the Advantages of the Metrica]System for Prescribing, which was read in Edinburghrecently at an evening meeting of the North Britishbranch of the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain,and is published this week in our opening pages.The arguments adduced and the various devices forsimplification and for safeguarding the prescriptionagainst ambiguity, or error, were favourably receivedby the audience. It is reassuring to note thatDr. SrLLAR said he had not met with nor heard of anydifficulty arising from ignorance or incompetence ofthe members of the pharmaceutical profession. Thefull paper and the discussion which ensued are wellworth the careful consideration of those who yethesitate about the advantages of the metric system.To facilitate the transition the British Pharmacopoeiaof 1898 and that of 1914 have given due prominenceto the metric system : in the latter issue all the

pharmaceutical directions are given according to themetric system, while the doses alone retain, for thepresent, both the metric and Imperial systems. Whilethere is apparently an intention to carry the line ofprogress further in the future, there is another factorto be considered-namely, the influence of such

change upon the public. There can be no doubt thatthe general adoption of the metric system wouldnecessitate great changes of habit amongst those:accustomed to take their doses as fractional parts of thecapacity of the bottle, or, more vaguely, as measuredby some article in common use, such as a teaspoon, adessert spoon, or a tablespoon. It is notorious thatthese severally differ greatly in size, and should there-fore be replaced by measure-glasses. It might taketime to effect such changes of routine, but they donot appear to offer any unsurmountable difficulties.There are more serious troubles to be faced so long asboth systems are in vogue, in connexion with theNational Health Insurance prescriptions which passthrough the hands of a pricing bureau, of which the- staff have to be trained to use the metric system, andto convert it to the Imperial system for pricingpurposes.The present tendency is so clearly toward the

approximation of scientific methods amongst allcivilised nations that there need be no doubt that in

Pharmaceutical Journal, Feb. 25th, 1922, p. 152.

the future the metric system will be adopted in thiscountry. Dr. SILLAR appears to consider that theclinical teachers and practitioners are largely respon.sible for the present slow progress made in thisdirection. Certainly the figures mentioned at theEdinburgh meeting show that relatively few prescrip.tions are written in the metric system, thoughdispensers generally are ready to deal with them.The public safety demands that only one systemshould be employed, since there is danger of errorwhile both are used. The question is whether theinertia and apathy of the past should be allowed tocontinue, or whether the time has not come for theenforcement of the more simple and rational systemfor all medical and scientific purposes. This wouldentail the introduction of a new metric drug tariff forthe use of the pricing bureau of the National HealthInsurance,- and this tariff would be facilitated by adecimal coinage. The way for such legislativemeasures has been prepared gradually and unob-

trusively, so that cleavage from the old to the newwould probably be the cause of no surprise, andwould be effected with little inconvenience.

The National Collection of TypeCultures.

THE labours of the botanical and zoological systema-tist are apt to be despised by those whose interestdraws them to the more exciting investigation of howthings live and move and have their being, ratherthan to the niceties of settling how one kind of thingmay be distinguished from another sort. The bound-

ing progress of SWAMMERDAM, R]TAUMUR, and JOHNHUNTER through the anatomy, physiology, and life-history of animals received something of a check withthe rise of LINNaeUS in the second half of the eighteenthcentury, and his programme of describing, naming, andcataloguing all animate nature became perhaps rathertoo popular during the nineteenth century. But itwas indispensable that the 8ystema N aturae should bewritten, and it is indispensable that it should be

continuously supplemented as the range of natural

knowledge enlarges. The physiologist and experi-mentalist who speaks contemptuously of the " meresystematist " and the " gardening bacteriologist

"

might as well disparage NOAH WEBSTER. An orderlyarrangement of objects and an adequate nomenclaturefor them must form the basis of any further progressin their investigation : No7ni7za si nescis perit etcoanitio rerurii. Nowhere in biology has this provedmore true than in bacteriology. The study of micro-organisms has always been rather of what they dothan of what they are, and workers have often beencareless in taking note of names and descriptions andof working out the meticulous distinctions whichenable the biological student of the higher plants todefine more or less precisely the object to which iieis paying attention, and to give it a name that willconvey his meaning to others. And as descriptionsare apt to prove imperfect and ambiguous and withincreasing knowledge to become generic rather thanspecific,the systematic catalogue must be supplementedby the museum which will preserve authentic originalsor duplicates. If anyone is interested in the parasitesof an oak tree, he can ascertain at the Natural HistoryMuseum or Kew Gardens whether the host is Quercuspedunculata or Quercus ses.<i’&Iacute;l1jlora, and what otherscall his particular gall or caterpillar. Now, thanks tothe admirable scheme of a collection of type cultures oimicro-organisms, established by the Lister Institute