1890-91.] REFORMS IN TIME RECKONING. 141 



and Quebec. It has quite recently been brought into use on all the rail- 

 ways within the Indian Empire and in China. Everywhere it gives the 

 greatest satisfaction. According to a report submitted at the last annual 

 meeting of the American Society of Civil Engineers, there is every 

 prospect of the new notation being adopted on all the railways of 

 North America at an early day. The same report points out that 

 while at the beginning of 1890 it was in use on less than 4,000 miles of 

 railway, before the year closed the twenty-four hour notation was per- 

 manently adopted on more than 20,000 miles in America and Asia. 



If we consider the length of time exacted and the difficulty of effort to 

 effect some of the reforms in time-reckoning to which allusion has been 

 made, we may well be surprised that so much has already been 

 accomplished towards this final reform. Only a few years ago the 

 proposal to interfere with the time honored usage, whatever its necessity, 

 was received with derision. It soon became obvious, however, to men 

 of broad and advanced views, that great changes in time-reckoning and 

 time notation would soon be demanded as requirements of the new 

 conditions of human life. The Congress of the United States inter- 

 vened, and on the invitation of the President a conference of all nations 

 was held at Washington in 1884, when the subject was first authorita- 

 tively considered. Congress is again taking action, by entertaining a 

 measure recently introduced to legalize the changes already effected and 

 contemplated. 



In 1878, when an earnest attempt was made to bring the subject of 

 " time reform " to the attention of the British Association for the 

 Advancement of Science, it was looked upon as pure utopianism, and a 

 hearing for it could not be obtained. To-day the British Government, 

 ordinarily conservative in ancient usages, has forwarded to the Govern- 

 ments of every British possession around the globe, the recommendations 

 of the highest scientific authorities in its service " with a view to the 

 adoption of the Hour Zone system in reckoning time generally, and of 

 the 24 hour notation for railway time tables." 



There have been other reforms besides those mentioned in the fore- 

 going pages ; the most memorable of which were those of Julius Caesar, 

 B. C. 46, and of Pope Gregory XIII., A. D. 1582. The former intro- 

 duced regulations respecting the division of time which were rendered 

 necessary by the confusion which then prevailed. The latter corrected 

 certain defects which had crept in, in connection with the Julian Calen- 

 dar, and established new rules of intercalation, regarding the period 

 known as leap year or 'Bissextile." The reform of 1582 took effect 

 in some parts of southern Europe soon after it was decreed, but so 



