AVOIR DU POIS

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AVOIR DU POIS

AVOIR DU POIS, comm. law. The name of a peculiar weight. This kind of weight is so named in distinction from the Troy weight. One pound avoir du poiscontains 7000 grains Troy; that is, fourteen ounces, eleven pennyweights andsixteen grains Troy a pound avoir du pois contains sixteen ounces; and anounce sixteen drachms. Thirty-two cubic feet of pure spring-water, at thetemperature of fifty-six degrees of Fahrenheit's thermometer, make a ton of2000 pounds avoir du pois, or two thousand two hundred and forty pounds netweight. Dane's Abr. c. 211, art. 12, Sec. 6. The avoir du pois ounce is lessthan the Troy ounce in the proportion of 72 to 79; though the pound is,greater. Eneye. Amer. art. Avoir du pois., For the derivation of thisphrase, see Barr. on the Stat. 206. See the Report of Secretary of State ofthe United States to the Senate, February 22d, 1821, pp. 44, 72, 76, 79, 81,87, for a learned exposition of the whole subject.

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