690 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIII. No. 853 



After writing the above an accidental open- 

 ing of your issue of December 23 shows me a 

 similar proposition for correction by weeks 

 from the University of Illinois, where for 

 some years astronomy was in my charge, but 

 the arrangements proposed bring to mind a 

 passage in the Encylopsedia which says : " The 

 difficulties that arose in attempting to " ad- 

 just dilferences " induced some nations to 

 abandon the moon altogether." Wise nations ! 

 To the escaping Hebrews the moonlight was 

 all-important, but if we were to run away we 

 should most likely depend on artificial light 

 and may safely abandon the moon. 



A discussion in detail of the feasibility of 

 the correction by weeks would be too long for 

 a single letter. My hope is that it may be 

 exhaustively criticized and prove to be the 

 easiest way. One five-yearly correction large 

 enough to be intelligently provided for ought 

 to be better than numerous small and con- 

 fusing irregularities. 



Comparatively such a correction is not 

 large. For the sake of uniformity we now 

 have " standard time " varying as much as 

 two per cent, from local time, local noon 

 varying as much as one per cent, from astro- 

 nomical, and we have months diifering in 

 length by ten per cent., with similarly large 

 differences between the calendars of different 

 nations. The proposed correction is less than 

 two per cent. 



Some of the details have been worked out in 

 tabular form to the year 2006 and further, but 

 this letter is long enough without the inser- 

 tion of tables. The general effect of the pro- 

 posed calendar on New Year's Day is to shift 

 it towards the shortest day of the year, but by 

 1946 and 1991 it has returned to its present 

 place; after 1991, however, it creeps back 

 more permanently so as to remain among the 

 shortest days of the year. 



J. BuRKiTT Webb 



To THE Editor of Science: If calendar re- 

 form is going to be a subject of discussion in 

 scientific circles, international conferences, 

 etc., it would be well to bear in mind that any 

 radical change will be a great inconvenience 



to the business world. I agree with Professor 

 Barton' that the disadvantages of Professor 

 Chamberlin's scheme outweigh its advantages. 



We can not have an ideal calendar for the 

 reason that 365 is not exactly divisible by 

 12, 10 or 8. The year has been divided into 

 twelve months for thousands of years, and it 

 is as satisfactory a division as can be made, 

 especially since the twelve months are divisible 

 into four quarters. The chief objection to 

 the present calendar is that February has only 

 28 days. This can easily be changed by giving 

 it 30, and talking the two days from some of 

 the months that now have 31. I suggest the 

 following : 



Five months of 31 days: December, Jan- 

 uary, June, July, August — 155 days. 



Seven months of 30 days : February, March, 

 April, May, September, October, November — 

 210 days. 



February may be given 31 days in leap year. 



December, January and July each have now 

 a national or general holiday. We can shift 

 Memorial Day to June and Labor Day to the 

 last working day in August, so that each 

 month of 31 days would have a holiday in it. 

 Wm. Kent 



The movement for the reform of the calendar 

 has ju8t made new progress. We learn from M. 

 Groselaude, inventor of the chief project, and also 

 by official confirmation through the newspapers, 

 that the Swiss Federal Council has decided to 

 initiate the calling of an international conference, 

 whose purpose will be the reform of the Gregorian 

 calendar, in order to obviate the inconvenience 

 caused by the changing of the weeks in the year, 

 which brings the school holidays at different times 

 each year. 



The Vatican has been consulted and would be 

 in favor of the reform, which would remove the 

 necessity for changing the date of Easter every 

 year. 



The reform to be discussed will be based on the 

 project of Groselaude, which has already been 

 explained in these columns, and which was recom- 

 mended by the first congress of the Universal 

 Esperanto Association last August. 



It is therefore to be hojped that soon this im- 

 portant reform will be on the way to realization. 



' Science, January 13. 



