84 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



wore made, so that in the absence of specitie information, it was impos- 

 sible to tell to whieh set of 24 hours an}' given event should be referred. 

 Had the ca])tains been in the habit of changing their dates at midnight, 

 pi'obably no such inconvenience Avould have happened. Also bearing 

 testimony to the desirabilit}' of uniformity. Commodore F'ranklin, himself, 

 of course, a practical sailor, on his part, said that he believed to all navi- 

 gators, certainly to English speaking ones, the new method, which had 

 some 3'ears before received the sanction of the Washington International 

 Meridian Conference, would prove to be decidedly advantageous as it 

 would tend to remove, on the part of^ariners not possessed of a mathe- 

 matical education, a liability to confusion in the conversion of time due 

 to the nautical day preceding the civil day by 12 hours and the astro- 

 nomical day by 24 hours. The commodore explained that '• the navi- 

 gator is concerned, not with his longitude, but with his Greenwich time, 

 having obtained which he can take from the Nautical Almanac the data 

 he seeks, whether given for noon or midnight, and when the ephemerides 

 siiall have been made to conform to the new system, there will be one time 

 in common use by all the world." He further contended that among 

 navigators the change, when made, would be attended by but little con- 

 fusion, and that of a temporary character. 



To the question asked in the circular of the joint committee, 171 

 answers were received ; the last came in December, 1S94, and was from 

 the veteran Signo'- Denza, chief astronomer of the Vatican Observatory, 

 who voted for the proposed change. Of the replies, 108 were in the 

 affirmative and 63 in the negative. By countries, the astronomers voted 

 as follows for the change : Austria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Colombia, 

 iCngland, France, Greece, Italy, Ireland, Jamaica, Madagascar, Mexico, 

 Roumania, Russia, Scotland, Spain and the United States of America, 

 eighteen in all. Against the change : Germany, Holland, Norway and 

 Poi'tugal, four in all. The eighteen countries in favour of a change 

 represent 85 per cent of the tonnage of the world. 



Based upon these answers, the Astronomical and Physical Society 

 and the Canadian Institute, in May, 1894, addressed a joint memoi^ial to 

 His Excellency the Governor-General, praying His Excellency to lay the 

 matter before Her Majesty's advisers with a view to such action being- 

 taken as appeared to be proper in the premises. The society has reason 

 to believe that on the 2fJth of June, the Colonial Seci'ctary forwarded the 

 memcn-ial to the Lords of the Committee of ('ouncil on Education, which 

 refoi-red the question for re])ort to the committee, consisting of the as- 

 tronomer royal, Lieutenant -General E. Strachey, R.E., C.S.L., F.R.S., 

 Dr. Hind, F.R.S.. the hydrographer of the navy, the president of the 

 Royal Astronomical Society, A. M. W. Downing, Esq., M.A., D.Sc, and 

 Major General Sir J. Donnelly, K.C.B., which was originally formed to 

 consider the question of a uniform prime meridian and which has since 



