(10.) A shopkeeper bought 3 qrs. 14 lb. of teas; 1 qr. 23 lb. of coffee; 3 cwt. 2 qrs. 5 lb. of sugars; 2 qrs. 3 lb. 13 oz. 9 dr. of spices; 13 cwt. 1 qr. 24 lb. of hops, and other articles weighing 3 cwt. 17 lb. 7 oz. 13 dr. What is the weight of the whole?

1 Scruple.

60= 3= 1 Dram.

480 24 8= 1 Ounce.

5760=288=96=12=1 Pound.

The standard for this weight is the same as that of Troy weight, but with different divisions, the ounce being divided into 8 drams or 24 scruples.. Medicines are compounded by this weight; but drugs are usually bought and sold by avoirdupois weight.

*

Physicians chiefly make use of the latter characters, in the above table, in writing their prescriptions.

+ Dram, which is sometimes written drachm, is a contraction from drachma.

(7.) An Apothecary made a composition of five ingredients; the first weighed 3 lb. 7 oz.; the second, 1 oz. 7 dr. 13 gr.; the third, 7 lb. 2 sc.; the fourth, 11 lb. 3 dr. 1 sc.; and the fifth, 5 lb. 5 oz. 2 dr. 1 sc. 7 gr. What was the weight of the whole?

And a Pack of wool is 12 score, or 240 pounds.

Pounds.

7= 1 Clove.

la.

4368-624=312=156 =24=12=1 Last.

61= 1 Wey.

2= 1 Sack.

* The stone formerly varied in weight in different counties. In Gloucestershire it was 15 lb., and in Herefordshire only 12 lb.

The same may also be said with respect to a stone of meat, which, in London, is 8 lb., but in the northern counties, and some other parts of the kingdom, 16 lb.; though 14 lb. is the only legal standard.

Obs. Among mechanics the inch is usually divided into eighths. By the officers of the revenue, and by scientific persons, it is divided into tenths, hundredths, &c. Formerly it was made to consist of 12 parts called lines.

The length of 3 barley-corns was formerly reckoned an inch, but a barley-corn being no exact standard of measure, it was determined by an act of parliament, passed June 17th, 1824, that the standard for the

594= 198= = 16 =

23760 7920= 660 = 220

190080=63360=5280 =1760 =320=8=1 Mile.

51= 1 Pole.

40=1 Furlong.

measure of length shall be the imperial standard yard of 36 inches, when compared with the length of the pendulum vibrating seconds of mean time in the latitude of London, in a vacuum, at the level of the sea, being in the proportion of 36 to 39-1393 inches.

The standard yard, formerly preserved at the House of Commons, was destroyed by the fire which consumed the two houses of parliament in 1834; so that the country is now without a legal standard of measure, except the one constructed for the Royal Astronomical Society of London.

It may also be observed, in addition to the measures given above, that a Hand, which is used in estimating the height of horses, is 4 inches.