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France herself, though she was
the admirable initiator of the metrical system, has for too long
allowed a very regrettable confusion to exist; and it cannot be noted
without a certain sadness that it was not until the _11th July 1903_
that a law was promulgated re-establishing the agreement between the
legal and the scientific definition of the metre.
Perhaps it may not be useless to briefly indicate here the reasons of
the disagreement which had taken place. Two definitions of the metre
can be, and in fact were given. One had for its basis the dimensions
of the earth, the other the length of the material standard. In the
minds of the founders of the metrical system, the first of these was
the true definition of the unit of length, the second merely a simple
representation. It was admitted, however, that this representation had
been constructed in a manner perfect enough for it to be nearly
impossible to perceive any difference between the unit and its
representation, and for the practical identity of the two definitions
to be thus assured.


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