56 UNIVERSAL OR COSMIC TIME. 
ADDRESS AT THE INTERNATIONAL GEOGRAPHICAL CONGRESS, 
VENICE, SEPTEMBER 2lst, 1881, ON THE REGULATION OF 
TIME AND THE ADOPTYION OF A PRIME MERIDIAN. 
By Saxprorp Fiemine, Delegate, of the Canadian Institute, Toronto, and 
the American Metrological Society, New York. 
The subject to which, with your permission, I shall briefly refer, 
is the establishment of a Prime Meridian and Time-zero, to be com- 
mon to all nations. 
The history of geographical science informs us that a great number 
of initial meridians have at various times been employed by astron- 
omers and navigators. It is well known that Claudius Ptolemy of 
Alexandria was among the first to fix a meridian of reference. 
Ptolemy lived in the second century, when the iflhabitable world 
was thought to be limited to countries around, or not far beyond, the 
shores of the Mediterranean. From time to time a knowledge of the 
earth’s surface extended, and distinguished geographers arose, who 
adopted new initial meridians. It is not necessary that I should 
trouble you with a recital of the list of meridians from which, since 
the earliest period, longitudes have been reckoned. It is sufficient 
at this stage to refer to the fact that geographers of different nations 
have generally selected for starting points places of importance well- 
known to them, and that, as a rule, they have chosen the capitals or 
the principal observatories of the nations to which they respectively 
belonged. Hence the multiplication of meridians of reference 
throughout the world. Within a comparatively recent period com- 
munications between the peoples of different nations have been greatly 
facilitated, and intercourse has proportionately increased. It has 
consequently been felt that the variety of first meridians is embar- 
rassing and unnecessary. For a number of years the question of 
reducing this number has been under consideration ; it has been 
brought before the Geographical Congress at Antwerp, and again at 
Paris. The question has neen examined by different societies, and 
various proposals have been submitted, but unanimity with respect 
to the selection of a prime meridian to be common to all nations has 
in no way been attained. Repeated efforts have been made to gain 
general concurrence to the adoption of one of the existing national 
meridians, but these proposals have tended to retard a settlement of 
the question by awakening national sensibilities, and thus creating a 
barrier difficult to remove. Other proposals to select an entirely new 
initial line, unrelated to any one of the first meridians at present 
recognized, have but little advanced the settlement of the question, 
as such a course encounters difficulties of another kind, difficulties so 
serious in their character as to render the proposals almost imprac- 
ticable. 
There are reasons for a unification of first meridians which every 
year become stronger, and, as the question affects the whole area of 
