NOVEMBEB 25, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



759 



into seasons, but which is usually ignored in 

 commercial and educational practise. The 

 quarters as grouped in the scheme proposed 

 are those that are most recognized in the cur- 

 rent time divisions of the business, social and 

 educational worlds. There are indeed climatic 

 reasons for our seasonal grouping in disregard 

 of the year division, but, after all, March is 

 only slightly less wintry than December, and 

 June scarcely more summery than September. 

 A strict seasonal adjustment is embarrassed 

 by the lag of the climatic effects behind their 

 astronomic causes and by the opposite phases 

 which the seasons assume in the northern and 

 southern hemispheres. In the tropics the in- 

 fluence of conditions other than the sun's posi- 

 tion on the nature of the seasons adds to the 

 difficulty. To this is added also the lack of 

 strict adjustment of either the present or the 

 proposed calendar to the astronomical divi- 

 sions initiated by the equinoxes and solstices. 

 Even if a strict adjustment of the calendar to 

 these were made, the climatic effects would lag 

 behind the astronomical divisions in a vague 

 and fluctuating way. Under the proposed 

 scheme, each seasonal quarter would start 

 about ten days after the astronomic event that 

 may be said to initiate it. This may be con- 

 strued as some recognition of the lag of cli- 

 matic effect, though it is merely accepting 

 current usage in starting the new year. 



With the shifting of the months as pro- 

 posed, and accepting the ten-day delay as a 

 compromise lag, each quarter would mark a 

 climatic movement of a single kind, a phase 

 of increase of insolation or a phase of decrease 

 of insolation; the winter, a movement from 

 the lowest insolation in the northern hemi- 

 sphere to medium insolation (the opposite, of 

 course, in the southern hemisphere) ; the 

 spring, a movement from medium insolation 

 to the highest insolation; the summer and the 

 fall, the corresponding phases of decrease. 

 While as systematists and as scientists we 

 might prefer a shift from present usage to the 

 exact dates of the solstices and equinoxes, it 

 would probably be asking too much of the 

 inertia of mankind to change the calendar so 

 as to effect this. Besides, these astronomical 



divisions are not strictly equal, and that would 

 give us trouble. 



In the matter of holidays, the scheme seems 

 to lend itself fairly well to current practise 

 and is perhaps well suited to mold future prac- 

 tise as well. The 28th day of December would 

 always fall on Sunday and be the immediate 

 fore-runner of Christmas. Christmas itself 

 would always fall on the Monday of Christmas 

 week. Our greatest holiday would thus have 

 a distinctive place of its own at the head of its 

 special week, instead of falling in the midst of 

 a month and on a constantly shifting day of 

 the week. The winter holiday season would 

 be closed usually by New Tear's Day, but on 

 every fourth year by Leap Day, following New 

 Tear's Day. The Christmas holidays would 

 thus be lengthened to nine days or to ten days. 



Easter week would always begin on Monday, 

 the 85th day of the year, and the days of the 

 week might have the special designations, 

 Easter Tuesday, Easter Wednesday, and so on, 

 ending with Easter Sunday, which would ap- 

 propriately be followed by the spring season. 



The Julian week wouJd embrace our na- 

 tional holiday, which would always be Julian 

 Thursday. The Julian week might well come 

 to embrace the observances that mark the end 

 of the educational year. 



The Gregorian week would fall at a time 

 well suited to the harvest festivals, the fairs, 

 etc. 



The close weeks between each of the three- 

 month groups would form a natural time for 

 closing books for the quarter, rounding up 

 accounts, making out quarterly reports, hold- 

 ing official corporation meetings, declaring 

 dividends, etc., in the world of affairs, and for 

 vacations and rest intervals in the educational 

 and professional worlds. 



The authors of the rectifications that gave 

 us our present calendar are recognized in the 

 naming of the Julian and Gregorian weeks. 



T. C. Chamberlin 



ANTARCTICA AS A FORMER LAND CONNECTION 

 BETWEEN THE SOUTHERN CONTINENTS 



Lest my position with reference to this sub- 

 ject be misunderstood, I wish to state that my 



