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WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. of measures used in market places, and since then Parliament has enacted many statutes upon the subject, the present English law being incorporated in the Weights and Measures Act. In the United States the power of regulating weights and measures was vested in Congress, but as that body has not attempted to exercise its authority, except in regard to standards for the collection of customs and internal revenue, the several States have been obliged to fix their own standards and prescribe penalties for the violation of their statutory provisions on this subject. Inspectors are usually appointed with power to visit places of business where either weights or measures are used, in order to detect and prosecute violations of the law. Besides forfeiture of the false instruments, a penalty of fine or imprisonment is usually imposed upon the offender. Such laws have been held to be a legitimate exercise of the police power.

. Clark, “Standards of Linear Measures,” School of Mines Quarterly (New York, 1893); J. Q. Adams, Report on Weights and Measures (Philadelphia, 1821); Woolhouse, Measures, Weights, and Moneys of All Nations (London, 1881); Hultsch, Griechische und Römische Metrologie (Berlin, 1862); Giessler, Journal of the Franklin Institute, vol. 126, p. 122 (Philadelphia); Böckh, Metrologische Untersuchungen über Gewichte u. s. w. des Altertums (Berlin, 1838); Chisholm, On the Science of Weighing and Measuring (London, 1877); Clarke, Weights, Measures, and Money of All Nations (New York, 1875); Kelly, Universal Cambist (London, 1835), on English weights and measures; Alexander, Universal Dictionary of Weights and Measures, Ancient and Modern (Baltimore, 1850); Cavalli, Tableaux comparatifs des mesures, poids, etc., de tous les états du monde (Paris, 1874); Harkness, “The Progress of Science as Exemplified in the Art of Weighing and Measuring,” Bulletin of the Philosophical Society of Washington (Washington, 1888); Hilliger, “Studien zu mittelalterlichen Maszen und Gewichten,” Historische Vierteljahrsschrift (Leipzig, 1900); Hultsch, “Die Gewichte des Altertums,” in the ''Abhandlungen d. Kön. Sächs.'' ''Gesellsch. d. Wissenschaften, vol. 18 (Leipzig, 1898); Jackson, Modern Metrology (London, 1882); Lepsius, Die Längenmasze der Alten'' (Berlin, 1884); Mendenhall, “Fundamental Units of Measure,” Smithsonian Report (Washington, 1893); Noel, Science of Metrology (London, 1889). See also the Proceedings of the American Metrological Society (New York) and various bulletins and circulars of United States Bureau of Standards (Washington, 1901 et seq.). See ; ;.

The following table exhibits the chief units of extension, volume, and weight in use among the leading nations of the world. Their equivalents are expressed in the English system.