q. e. s. system

from The Century Dictionary.

• A system of physical units elaborated by the British Association for the Advancement of Science, in which the unit of length is 1 × 10 times the quadrant of the earth measured from the equator to the north polo, the unit of mass is the gram, and the unit of time is the second. The name proposed for this system was the quadrant- eleventh-gramme-second system, hence the abbreviation q, e. s.