Unification in the measure of time. 83 



Consult the proceedings of the Washington Conference,* 

 and the official Report on the same by Dr. Janssen, the 

 President for 1888 of the Paris Academy of Sciences.f 



It is customary to attribute the failure of the Con- 

 ference to a wounded national susceptibility of France. 

 That France had, after all, some reason for feeling wounded, 

 is the impression which one cannot help having when 

 carefully perusing the above documents ; yet the evidence 

 of facts goes to prove that the failure was not due to this, 

 but to a motive of a purely scientific nature and preceding in 

 point of time the debates of the Washington Conference. 



In August, 1884, consequently two months before the 

 Conference, the French Minister of Public Instruction ap- 

 pointed a special committee composed of standard repre- 

 sentatives of science and men having a special competence 

 to give advice on the practical side of the question, charging 

 them carefully to consider the proposals which were to be 

 brought before the Conference. The conclusions of the 

 committee are given in a remarkable report by M. Caspari, 

 one of its members : \ " For navigation the question is 

 " extremely simple ; it does not find the least inconvenience 

 " in the statu quo ; it would find very great inconveniences 

 " in its modification. . . . We may say in conclusion that, 



* House of Representatives. Executive Document, No. 14 ; Forty-eighth 

 Congress, Second Session, December 4th, 1884. 



t CoTnptes-rendtis hebdoviadaires des Seances de P Acadimie de France. 

 9 Mars, 1885, pp. 706 — 726. 



+ Here are the names of the members of that Committee : MM. Faye, 

 President, d'Abbadie, Bouquet de la Grye, Senator Dupuy de Lome, Janssen, 

 Vice- Admiral Jurien de la Gravi^re, Ferd. de Lesseps, Liewy, Contre- Admiral 

 Mouchez, Perrier, Vice-Admiral Paris, Tisserand, Wolff, all members of the 

 Institute of France. Moreover : MM. Blavier, director of the Superior 

 Telegraph School ; Gael, director ingenieur of telegraphs ; Caspari, hydro- 

 grapher ingenieur of the marine ; Charmes, director of the Secretaryship at the 

 Ministry of Public Instruction ; de Chancourtois, General Mines Inspector ; 

 Clavery, minister plenipotentiary director at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs ; 

 Colonel Goulier, of the French G4nie ; Colonel Laussedat, of the French 

 Ghtie, and director of the Co7iservatoire des arts et m&tiers ; Noblemaire, 

 director of the Railway Paris-Lyon-Mediterranee, 



