TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION A. 619 



Airy, Astronomer Eoyal of Greenwicli said : ' Nearly all navigation is based on the 

 Nautical Almanack, which is based on Greenwich observations and referred to 

 Greenwich meridian. . . . But I, as Superintendent of the Greenwich Observatory, 

 entirely repudiate the idea of founding any claim on this.' Unfortunately this 

 advice has not been listened to, and though, to use Dr. Struve's expression in his 

 Keport on the Washington Conference of 1884, ' a law relative to the uniiication 

 of time notation is of less relative importance to the navigator,' the preference there 

 given to Greenwich was almost exclusively based on the argument disclaimed by 

 Sir G. B. Airy. 



A comparison more or less derogatory to the Paris Observatory was also, 

 unfortunately, transparent; which, of course, could not fail to be unfavourably 

 resented. The result was that France, which had propounded the principle of 

 neutrality or internationality, abstained from voting. The same did Brazil. 

 Now, as it has been there remarked, any resolution passed without the consent 

 of France would not answer the scope of the Conference. 



That things are now no more advanced than before the Washington Confer- 

 ence is proved by the very message of the President of the United States to the 

 Congress, dated January 9, 1888, recommending the Government ' to take action 

 to approve the resolutions passed in 1884 and to invite the Powers to accede to 

 them.' They are, consequently, not approved yet, nor have the Powers acceded 

 yet to them. 



Moreover, the delegates of the 26 Powers there represented declared, from the 

 very beginniug, that their presence there was only ad referendum, and could not in 

 any way bind their respective Governments. What these consequently really 

 think on the subject is unknown, and they are still at liberty of giving or refusing 

 their adhesion. Other Governments not represented at AVashington, say Pioumania 

 and China, may claim a right to give an opinion, which may equally result either in 

 diminishing or increasing the opposition. 



On the other hand, the urgency of the unification of time is every day more 

 keenly felt, and Mr. Saudford Fleming, its fervent promoter, can now safely rely 

 on general opinion. ' All sciences,' says again Dr. Struve, ' are in common inter- 

 ested in it,' and he expresses even the hope that ' it might be arranged to come to 

 pass in 1890.' 



Finally the simultaneous use of more than one initial meridian is acknowledged 

 not to be without some advantage for science, as stated in M. Caspari's Report for 

 the French ' Commission de I'Unification des longitudes et des heures ' (August 

 1884). It cannot, for instance, be denied that they offer a means of controlling 

 and securing the correctness of ' Ephemerides." 



For all these reasons, and to prevent the unification of time being indefinitely 

 postponed ftn* want of agreement on the initial meridian, the Bologna Academy of 

 Science submits to the British Association the following suggestion contained in a 

 Note of theirs recently addressed to .all scientific bodies represented at the festivals 

 of the eighth centenary of the Bologna University in June last, viz. — 



' That, navigators and astronomers being at liberty to go on using their own 

 initial meridians, another truly international meridian be chosen for all other 

 purposes for which the unification of time is required. That, moreover, since 

 the Jerusalem meridian has already the suffi-ages of scientific authorities, its 

 appropriateness to serve as the universal initial meridian be seriously taken into 

 consideration.' 



