Genre:

Regular Feature, Proceedings, Drollery

Subjects:

Government, Politics, Measurement, Nationalism, Cultural Geography, Gender

    Notes the discussion in both Houses of Parliament on 'the metric System of Weights and Measures, which is adopted by nearly all other civilised nations, but which it is good clap-trap to resist, call, un-English, and otherwise abuse' (219). Announces John S Mill's presentation to the House of Commons of 'a petition signed by 21,757 women, who asked for the Franchise', the first signatory being Mary Somerville, 'the Mechanist of the Heavens' (a reference to Somerville 1831), and Florence Nightingale, the 'Healer on Earth' (220).