Our neighbours in France, who are particularly fond of framing theories and experimenting on them for the edification of other nations, availed themselves of the general upturning of affairs in 1789, to introduce a universal decimal system, to be applied to everything whatever that could be counted, weighed, or measured. They started from the measurement of the globe itself, and took as the basis of their whole system the ten-millionth part of a quadrant of a meridian, equal to 39-371/1000 inches English. This they called a metre (measure), and to it, as a unit, they prefixed the Greek numerals to express increase in the decimal ratio; thus decametres, tens of meters; hectametres, hundreds of meters; and so on. To express diminution in the decimal ratio, they used the Latin numerals; thus, decimetres, tenths of meters; centimetres, hundredths of meters; milliametres, thousandths of meters. The unit adopted for square measure was the _are_, equal to 100 square meters; for solid measure, the _stere_, equal to one cubic meter; and for measure of capacity, the _litre_, a cubic decimeter. The weights were derived from these measures; the _gramme_ being the weight of one cubic centimeter of distilled water. The system of decimal gradation was applied to all of these; that is, each denomination represented a tenth part of the one above it, and ten times as much as the one next below it, the Latin and Greek numerals being prefixed as we have already described with reference to the meter. In conformity with this decimal law, the quadrant was divided, for astronomical purposes, into 100 degrees instead of 90; and the thermometer likewise into 100 degrees from the boiling to the freezing point. At the same time, a system of reckoning money by tens was introduced; and it must be owned, that the whole system of computation in weights, measures, and money established in France at this period, is one of the greatest triumphs of civilisation. In ordinary transactions, old denominations of money are still used by the French; the _sous_, in particular, being apparently ineradicable. But in book-keeping, the furnishing of accounts, and in literature, the modern and legal standards are invariably adhered to.