To turn grammes into grains, multiply by 10,000, dividing the result by 648. The metric system is especially useful in our local jewellery and other trades, but it is very slowly making its way against the old English foot and yaid, even such a learned man as Professor Rankine poking fun at the foreign measures in a comic song of which two verses run:-- Some talk of millimetres, and some of kilogrammes, And some of decillitres to measure beer and drams; But I'm an English workman, too old to go to school, So by pounds I'll eat, by quarts I'll drink, and work by my two-foot rule. A party of astronomers went measuring of the earth, And forty million metres they took to be its girth; Five hundred million inches now go through from pole to pole, So we'll stick to inches, feet, and yards, and our own old two-foot rule. ~Mid-England.~--Meriden, near Coventry, is believed to be about the centre spot of England. ~Midland Institute.~--Suggestions of some such an institution, to take the place of the defunct Mechanics', had several time appeared in print, but nothing definite was done in the matter until the subject was discussed (June 4, 1852) over the dinner table of Mr. Arthur Ryland. Practical shape being given to the ideas then advanced, a town's meeting on Dec. 3, 1853, sanctioned the grant by the Council of the land necessary for the erection of a proper building, and an Act of Incorporation was obtained in the following Parliamentiry session. In December 1854, Charles Dickens gave three readings in the Town Hall, in behalf of the building fund, whereby £227 13s. 9d. was realised, the donations then amounting to £8,467. The foundation stone was laid by Prince Albert, on Nov. 22, 1855, and the contract for the first part of the building given to Messrs. Branston and Gwyther for £12,000. The lecture theatre was opened Oct. 13, 1857, when addresses were delivered by Lord Brougham, Lord Russell, and Lord Stanley, the latter delivering the prizes to the students who had attended the classes, which were first started in October, 1854, at the Philosophical Institute. In 1859, the portrait of David Cox was presented to the Institute, forming the first contribution to the Fine Art Gallery, which was built on portion of the land originally given to the Institute, the whole of the buildings being designed by Mr. E.M. Barry. The amount subscribed to the building fund was about £18,000, and the coat, including furniture and apparatus more than £16,000. Great extension has been made since then, on the Paradise Street side, and many thousands spent on the enlargement, branch classes bring also held at several of the Board Schools to relieve the pressure on the Institute. In 1864, the members of the Institute numbered 660, and the students 880, with an income of £998; in January, 1874, there were 1,591 members, 733 family ticket holders. 2,172 students, and an income of £2,580. At the end of 1833,