424 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



extreme difficulty that the traveler between 

 the East and the West could keep an ac- 

 count of the hour. The new system which 

 has been adopted contemplates the estab- 

 lishment, for the whole United States, of 

 four principal meridians, distant from each 

 other exactly one hour of solar time, to the 

 nearest one of which the local time of every 

 point in the country shall be referred. These 

 meridians are selected so as to bear an ex- 

 act relation, in even hours, with the me- 

 ridian of Greenwich, whence most of the 

 world computes its longitude. "Eastern 

 time," to which the hour from Maine to 

 Florida and in the region of the lower lakes 

 is adjusted, conforms to the time of the sev- 

 enty - fifth meridian, which is five hours 

 slower than Greenwich time. Its region 

 begins at 67^° longitude, or as near there 

 as is convenient, and ends at or about 82|^°. 

 West of this is the region of Central time, 

 which is governed by the time at the nine- 

 tieth meridian, and extends to longitude 

 9*7^°, including the Mississippi and Missouri 

 Valleys, the upper lakes and Texas. The 

 next division will conform to the one hun- 

 dred and fifth meridian, and will include 

 the Rocky Mountain region ; and the next, 

 for the Pacific coast, to the one hundred 

 and twentieth meridian. To the east of the 

 " Eastern time " region of the United States 

 the maritime British provinces are expected 

 to set their clocks by the time of the six- 

 tieth meridian, one hour ahead of any part 

 of the United States. As the clocks in the 

 United States have for many years been 

 practically regulated by the railroads, it will 

 probably not be long before the whole 

 country, and every interest in it, will be com- 

 puting its hours so as to conform with the 

 new standards. The movement of which 

 this is the first and a very important prac- 

 tical step was begun in 1875 by the Ameri- 

 can Metrological Society, and is designed 

 to embrace the whole world. It has been 

 approved, in principle at least, by numerous 

 learned societies and international associa- 

 tions. The complete scheme involves the 

 division of the whole earth into time-sec- 

 tions of 1 5° of longitude, or one hour each, 

 with standards of time determined at every 

 fifteenth meridian ; the establishment of a 

 point where for the purposes of the month- 

 ly calendar the day shall end and the next 



day begin, at the one hundred and eightieth 

 meridian from Greenwich ; and a number- 

 ing, for scientific purposes at least, of the 

 hours of the day from one to twenty-four 

 without interruption. 



Greek in the Colleges.— The "Boston 

 Globe" says that "the Phi Beta Kappa ad- 

 dress of Charles Francis Adams, Jr., is 

 bearing fruit sooner and more plentifully 

 than even he could have expected. The 

 meeting of college presidents from nearly 

 all the New England colleges, held in Bos- 

 ton the other evening for the purpose of 

 discussing the question, indicated a very 

 general agreement with the less sweeping 

 of his propositions. A number of the gen- 

 tlemen were ready to make a beginning of 

 reform. Mr. Adams touched a fuse that 

 was all ready to go off." This presents the 

 case about as it is. The colleges were all 

 represented at the meeting by the modern- 

 language men, who naturally argued the 

 claims of their department with earnest- 

 ness. President Porter, of Yale, was absent, 

 but President Robinson, of Brown, who was 

 present, believes in the ancient languages 

 for a foundation ; and Presidents Bartlett, of 

 Dartmouth, Carter, of Williams, and proba- 

 bly Seelye, of Amherst, are rather conserva- 

 tive in this matter. President Eliot, of Har- 

 vard, on the other hand, means to give an 

 A. M. ultimately without regard to Greek. 

 He hopes neither to require it in college 

 nor in preparation, but to make modern 

 languages an equivalent. Yale, too, pro- 

 poses to require either French or German 

 for examination, and will probably lessen 

 its requirements of the ancient languages 

 in order to make the preliminary work no 

 more severe than now. The fact is, that 

 Mr. Adams drew the attention of the coun- 

 try to a subject which had been receiving 

 much consideration in the colleges, and his 

 address will do much to hasten action in re- 

 gard to the study of the ancient languages. 

 President Eliot plans a revolution in this 

 matter, while the other colleges will all give 

 more attention to modern languages. At 

 Williams, President Carter means in time 

 to make German a required study running 

 through sophomore year, leaving it optional 

 the rest of the course. — Springfield Repvb- 

 lican. 



