SUPPLEMENTARY PAPEPtS. 96 



on the ground of common utility and their conformability to the 

 requirements of the case. 



In Rome, namely, it was proposed that the Longitudes departing 

 from the custom observed, should be numbered around the whole 

 earth from West to East, and this proposition was there accepted 

 without further discussion ; so that nothing definite is known con- 

 cerning the reasons on which this resolution was founded. In Wash- 

 ington, on the other hand, this question was fully discussed. It was 

 there expressly and forcibly urged that the resolution adopted at 

 Rome was fraught with mischief for Cartography, that a departure 

 from the numbering in use dz 180° from the Initial Meridian, in no 

 way ofiered any scientific advantage, and- that the numbering of 

 Longitude to 360° — the 24 hours of the ultimately asked-for change 

 of Civic Time into proposed Universal Time — from want of practice, 

 would cause great difficulties and complications. It resulted accord- 

 ingly that the maintenance of the system in use, found no special 

 effective opposition from any side. 



It was different with regard to the question whether Universal 

 Time should commence with Greenwich, mid-day or mid-night. This 

 question in Rome, as in Washington, was discussed in detail. At 

 Rome the preference was given to mid-day, as thereby the interests 

 of astronomers and navigators were especially brought into promin- 

 ence. At Washin^on, on the other hand, the seamen who were 

 present at the Congress maintained that the new principle was of no 

 actual importance for men of their calling, a view which was held 

 also by the Russian naval men. 



It was also mentioned that already in the United States Marine it 

 was a common practice as in ordinary civic life to count the com- 

 mencement of the day from midnight. Consequently the argument 

 came with greater weight in the Washington Congress that the trans- 

 lation of the commencement of the Universal Day to G-reenwich mid- 

 day would cause considerable disturbance to Trade and Commerce in 

 the most populous territories of the world ; while at these places dur- 

 ing the most important business hours, in the period approaching mid- 

 day, a double set of dates must come into use. In the presence of an 

 argument of this character, the interests of the astronomer, which 

 alone must suffer from the determination must naturally be placed in 

 the background. So, as above remarked, the resolution to take mid- 

 night at Greenwich as the commencent of the Universal Day was 

 carried by a two-thirds majority, 7 countries abstaining from voting, 

 2 voting negatively. 



During the discussions on the Universal day an opportunity was 

 given to Mr. Sandford Fleming to submit his generally well-known 

 opinions as to the form in which the common acceptance of Universal 

 Time can take the place of the ordinary time affecting civil life which 

 in each particular place depends on the rising and setting of the sun. 



