. In weight, measure, or
time, the part is sometimes made possessive of the whole; as, "a _pound's_
weight, a _yard's_ length, an _hour's_ time." On the contrary, we do not
say, "_weight's_ pound, _length's_ yard, or _time's_ hour;" nor yet, "a
pound _of_ weight, a yard _of_ length;" and rarely do we say, "an hour _of_
time." _Pound_ and _yard_ having other uses, we sometimes say, "a pound
_in_ weight, a yard _in_ length;" though scarcely, "an hour _in_ time."

OBS. 35.--Between a portion of time and its correlative action, passion, or
being, the possessive relation is interchangeable; so that either term may
be the principal, and either, the adjunct: as, "_Three years'_ hard work,"
or, "Three years _of hard work_." Sometimes we may even put either term in
either form; as, "During the _ten years'_ war,"--"During the ten years _of
war_,"--"During the war _of ten years_,"--"During the _war's_ ten years."
Hence some writers, not perceiving why either word should make the other
its governed adjunct, place both upon a par, as if they were in apposition;
as, "Three _days time_."--_Brown's Estimate_, Vol. ii, p. 156. "By a few
_years preparation_."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 341. "Of forty _years
planting_."--_Wm. Penn_. "An account, of five _years standing_." If these
phrases were correct, it would also be correct to say, "_one day
time_,"--"_one year preparation_,"--"_one year planting_,"--"_of one year
standing_;" but all these are manifestly bad English; and, by analogy, so
are the others.

OBS. 36.--Any noun of weight, measure, or time, put immediately before an
other, if it be not in the possessive case, will naturally be understood
_adjectively_; as, "No person can, by words only, give to an other an
adequate idea of a _pound weight_, or [a] _foot rule_."--_Gregory's Dict._
This phraseology can, with propriety, refer only to the weight or the rule
with which we weigh or measure; it cannot signify _a pound in weight_, or
_a foot in length_, though it is very probable that the author intended the
latter. When the noun _times_ is used before an other noun by way of
multiplication, there may be supposed an ellipsis of the preposition _of_
between the two, just as when we divide by the word _half_; as, "An hour is
sixty _times the length_ of a minute."--_Murray's Gram._, p. 48. "Thirty
seconds are _half the length_ of a minute." That is,--"half _of_ the
length,"--"sixty times _of_ the length."

NOTES TO RULE IV.

NOTE I.--In