72 UNIVERSAL OR COSMIC TIME, 



5. The zero of the hours is the moment of mean, solar passage on 

 the anti-Prime Meridian. The first hour is at the moment of mean 

 solar passage on the Meridian 15° west of the anti-Prime Meridian ; 

 the second and the remaining hours of the Universal Day come in 

 turn at the solar passage on successive Meridians 15° of longitude 

 apart, each Hour-meridian being an exact multiple of 15° from zero. 



Thus a series of twenty-four Hour-meridians are practically deter- 

 mined around the globe, corresponding with the twenty-four hours of 

 the Universal Day. A principle of uniformity will consequently be 

 secured when the system of regulating civil time by Hour-standards 

 comes to be adopted in other countries. It has already been acted 

 upon in Canada and the United States with signal success. 



I have already stated that the principle of Universal Time was 

 adopted by the vote of twenty-three nations, and the division shows 

 that while the representatives of two nations abstained from voting, 

 no negative vote was cast against it. The recognition now given by 

 authority to this new mode of Time-reckoning is of great importance. 

 To my mind, it is far-reaching in its consequences, and obviously a 

 step towards the unification of Time throughout the world. It will 

 doubtless depend greatly on circumstances when and to what extent 

 this new system will be introduced into civil life. No arbitrary line 

 can be drawn to prescribe its applicability. It is only from use and 

 convenience that the practical limit will be found. In course of 

 years the uses and advantages of Universal Time will be better un- 

 derstood, and that which to this generation may appear strange and 

 extraordinary, to the one succeeding may be regarded as regular 

 and normal. 



I trust I may be allowed to state that the principles of Universal 

 Time adopted by the Conference are identical in character with those 

 set forth in some papers which were published in Canada six years 

 back. It was the Council of the Canadian Institute, Toronto, who 

 took the initiative in bringing the subject before the world in 1879. 

 This body memorialized the then Governor-General, Lord Lome, on 

 the subject, submitting documents on Time-reckoning and the selec- 

 tion of a Prime Meridian to be common to all nations. It was 

 through His Excellency's ofiicial and personal weight and influence 

 that copies of these papers were brought under the notice of the 

 Imperial Government. Through the intervention of the Imperial 

 Government they were submitted to the Governments of the civilized 

 nations, and became known to men of science and high reputation. 

 His Excellency evinced a deep interest in the question, a^id under 

 his distinguished auspices the attention of Scientific Societies in 

 Europe was first awakened to the subject. 



More recently the Canadian Institute appointed a Delegate to the 

 International Geographical Congress, held at Venice in 1881, to pro- 



