SUPPLEMENTARY PAPERS. 4:1 



2. It coincides exactly with that, where, after the custom iiitro 



duced by an historical succession of maritime discoveries, the 

 navigator makes a change of one unit in the date; a differ- 

 ence which is made near a number of small islands in the 

 Pacific Ocean, discovered during the voyages made to the 

 east and west. Thus the commencement of a new date 

 would be identical with that of the hours of Cosmopolitan 

 time. 



3. It makes no change to the great majority of navigators and 



hydrographers except the very simple addition of 12 hours, 

 or of 180° to all longitudes. 



4. It does not involve any change in the calculations of the 



ephemerides most in use among navigators, viz., the Eng- 

 lish Nautical Almanac, except turning mid-day into mid- 

 night, and vice versa. In the American Nautical Almanac 

 there would be no other change to introduce. With a cos- 

 mopolitan spirit, and in the just appreciation of a general 

 want, the excellent ephemerides, published at Washington, 

 record all data useful to navigators, calculated from the 

 Meridian of Greenwich. 

 For universal adoption, as proposed by the Canadian Institute, it 

 recommends itself to the inhabitants of all civilized countries, by 

 , reason of the great difference in longitude, thus removing all the 

 misunderstandings and uncertainties concerning the question as to 

 whether in any case Cosmopolitan or Local Time was iised. 



In answer to the first question offered by the Institute at Toronto, 

 T would therefore recommend the Academy to pronounce without 

 hesitation in favour of the universal adoption of the meridian situ- 

 ated 180° from Greenwich as Pi-ime Meridian of the globe. 



Accepting this conclusion, the second question bi-ought by the 

 Canadian Institute has no further interest to us. 



It remains for me to say a few words on other questions presented i 

 in the memoir of Mr. Fleming. He offers suggestions on several: 

 points which awaken a desire for further investigation. These sug-- 

 gestions seem very wise. The ideas concerning the introduction of a 

 common Time in all countries probably will yet take time to ripen, 

 and some propositions set forth by Mi*. Fleming will meet perhaps 

 with insurmountable difliculties in the habits and interests of sevei-al 

 counti'ies. To my mind, the most serious obstacle consists in the 

 fact that there is no means of indicating Cosmopolitan Time in differ- 

 ent parts of the world, while the rising and setting of the sun are 

 the phenomena which, we know, regulate the every-day occupa- 

 tions of human life. Bat the question presents itself in another 

 way, when it affects only the sciences. Without doubt in some sci- 

 ences, for example, astronomy, meteorology, physical geography, and 

 generally in all questions requiring an exact determination of time, 

 4 



