May 5, 1911] 



SCIENCE 



691 



If the Swiss government had not taken the initia- 

 tive in the matter, the government of the Nether- 

 lands was and is yet willing to call a conference 

 for the same purpose. 



During the past few months Science has 

 devoted a great deal of space to the above sub- 

 ject, and several well-developed schemes for 

 improving the calendar have been advanced. 

 However, none of these schemes has been com- 

 plete, and none of the authors of them has 

 presented with his scheme a plan by which it 

 could be introduced. 



The above quotation is a translation from 

 Esperanto of a news item which appeared in 

 the issue for December 5, 1910, of the official 

 organ of the Universal Esperanto Association, 

 published at Geneva, Switzerland. It speaks 

 of a scheme for improvement of the calendar 

 that has been under discussion in Europe for 

 more than twenty-five years, but which, strange 

 to say, has never been published in this coun- 

 try. This plan was originally published 

 anonymously by Camille Flammarian in 

 1884 and afterwards by M. Armelin, of Paris, 

 in 1887. In 1900 it was revived by L. A. 

 Grosclaude, of Geneva, and it is known as 

 Grosclaude's project. It has been developed 

 to its present stage by scientists of various 

 nations in the Internacia Scienca Revuo, pub- 

 lished in Dresden, by means of the language 

 Esperanto. In the recent discussion the 

 original plan has been slightly modified in 

 accordance with ideas advanced by Professor 

 Dr. W. Koppen, of Hamburg; and the scheme 

 as here presented is now advocated and sup- 

 ported by Dr. Eene de Saussure, a well-known 

 scientist of Geneva. 



As will be seen from the following explana- 

 tion and the accompanying table, the com- 

 pilers of this scheme have achieved a wonder- 

 ful simplification of the Gregorian calendar, 

 which can be introduced with absolutely no 

 break in present dates and no interruption of 

 present customs. 



There are just three great evils in the pres- 

 ent calendar, and these are: (1) The constant 

 changing of the position of the weeks in the 

 year, (2) the great irregularity and inequality 

 of the lengths of the months, (3) the necessity 



for movable holidays on account of the chang- 

 ing of the weeks each year. 



As the third evil is caused by the first, there 

 are really only two points which need to be 

 changed in the present calendar. These are: 

 (1) To fix the weeks in the year, and (2) to 

 even up the lengths of the months. 



As there is just one day more than fifty-two 

 full weeks in an ordinary calendar year, the ob- 

 vious solution of the problem of the changing 

 weeks is to make this day a non-week-day. 

 Having done this, the fifty-two weeks may be 

 divided into four quarters of thirteen weeks 

 each. As each quarter has ninety-one days, it 

 may be divided into three months — one of 

 thirty-one days, and two of thirty days. A 

 little calculation demonstrates that the logical 

 place for the thirty-one day month is at the 

 beginning of the quarter, as this arrangement 

 makes it unnecessary to change the length of 

 more than five of the months ; the other seven 

 months remaining exactly as at present. 



By placing the non-week day at the end of 

 the year, it may be made the thirty-first of 

 December, thus remaining a part of the month 

 and of the year, although not a part of any 

 week. 



As the thirty-first of December is St. Sil- 

 vester's Day, and is celebrated quite ex- 

 tensively in some sections in Europe, it is 

 proposed to call the non-week day Silvester 

 and to make it the holiday, instead of Jan- 

 uary first as at present. 



As the first day of the week is Sunday, each 

 quarter must begin on Sunday in order to 

 have thirteen complete weeks in each quarter. 

 January first would therefore fall on Sunday, 

 and " Silvester " would come between Satur- 

 day and Sunday. 



In leap years, the leap-year day would also 

 be made a non-week day and would be placed 

 at the end of the first half-year, thus becom- 

 ing the thirty-first of June, and giving the 

 first half year the same number of days as the 

 second half. It is proposed to call it Leap- 

 year Day. 



This plan makes a peculiarly happy dispo- 

 sition of the holidays, movable, as well as 

 fixed, as may be seen by the accompanying 



