UNIVERSAL OR COSMIC. TIME. 
Read before the Canadian Institute, 20th December, 188k, 
BY MR. SANDFORD FLEMING, C.M.G. 
On the first day of the month, the President of the United States, 
in his message at the opening of Congress, referred to the Interna- 
tional Meridian Conference lately convened in Washington, in the fol- 
lowing words :—‘“‘ The conference concluded its labours on the first 
of November, having with substantial unanimity agreed upon the 
meridian of Greenwich as the starting point whence longitude is to 
be computed through one hundred and eighty degrees eastward and 
westward, and upon the adoption for all purposes for which it may be 
found convenient of a Universal Day, which shall begin at midnight 
on the initial meridian, and whose hours shall be counted from zero 
up to twenty-four.” 
The Canadian Institute is peculiarly interested in this announce- 
ment. No society, literary or scientific, has taken a more important 
part in the initiation of the movement to reform our Time-system, 
of which the success is, to some extent, indicated in the President’s 
words. It therefore appears to me fit and proper that I should 
recall to your attention the various steps which from time to time 
have been taken, so that we may possess a record of the events which 
have led to the now almost general recognition of the necessity for a 
new notation. 
Six years ago on several occasions the meetings of the Institute 
were engaged in discussing the subject of Time-reckoning and the 
selection of a Prime Meridian common to all nations. Papers were 
read and arguments. were advanced, with the view of showing the 
necessity of establishing a cosmopolitan or universal time, by which 
the events of history might be more accurately recorded, and which 
would respond to the more precise demands of science, and generally 
satisfy the requirements of modern civilization. The proceedings of 
the Institute for January and February, 1879, give at considerable 
length the views submitted and the suggestions offered to meet the 
