'74 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XVI. No. 399 



The adoption of the system of standard time has ah-eady made 

 considerable progress. In North America, standard time was first 

 introduced in railway economy: it has since been generally ac- 

 cepted by the mass of the community. In Asia the same system 

 has been legally established throughout the Japanese Empire. In 

 Europe a general interest has been awakened on the subject; and 

 at the present moment it attracts special attention in Austria- 

 Hungary, Germany, and Belgium. Late advices give expression 

 to the belief that standard time will be adopted by the railway 

 service of these countries before many months. It is already ob- 

 served in Sweden and Great Britain. 



Thus, at the present day, standard time has been fully accepted 

 in Asia by not less than forty millions of people, in Europe by 

 almost an equal number, in America by more than sixty millions; 

 and there is scarcely a doubt that in no long period it will be in 

 use throughout the greater part of central Europe, making a total 

 number of probably two hundred and thirty millions of the most 

 progressive peoples in the three continents who will have accepted 

 the principles of reckoning based on a common unit. Without 

 taking into account central Europe, where the reform is on the 

 eve of adoption, the unification of time-reckoning has so far 

 advanced, that in Japan, Belgium, Sweden, England, Scotland, 

 Canada, and the United States, all well regulated clocks strike the 

 hours at the same moment (although locally the hours are distin- 

 guished b}' difl'erent numbers), and the minutes and seconds in all 

 these countries are absolutely synchronous. 



The unit of measurement authoritatively established by the 

 resolutions of the international conference of 1384 is the basis of 

 the system by which these results have been obtained; and we 

 must regard this new system as the one which shall hereafter be 

 observed by the great mass of the civilized inhabitants of the 

 world in their daily reckonings and in their chronology. It is of 

 first importance, therefore, that no doubt or ambiguity should 

 exist in connection with it. By the resolutions of the conference 

 of 1884, the unit measure may be defined as the interval of dui'a- 

 tion extending from one mean solar passage on the anti-meridian 

 of Greenwich to the next succeeding passage. This standard 

 unit has been variously designated as follows; viz., 1. A Universal 

 Day, 2. A Terrestrial Day, 3. A Non-Local Day, 4. A Cosmopolitan 

 Day, 5. A World Day, 6. A Cosmic Day. 



It require-; no argument to show that no one of these six terms 

 is appropriate. The unit of time is not a day in the ordinary 

 sense: it is, indeed, much more than an ordinary day. According to 

 our habit of thought, a day is invariably associated with alterna- 

 tions of light and darkness; and each day, moreover, has a definite 

 relationship to some locality on the surface of the earth. The 

 day, as we commonly understand it, is essentially local; and dur- 

 ing each rotation of the globe on its axis, occupying a period of 

 twenty- four hours, there are as many days as there are spots on 

 sea and on land differing in longitude. These numberless days 

 are separate and distinct, each having its noon and midnight, its 

 sunrise and sunset. The time-unit is an entirely different concep- 

 tion: it is equal in length to a day, and must, from its nature, be 

 synchronous with some one of the infinite number of local days. 

 By the resolutions of the Washington conference, it is identified 

 with the civil day of Greenwich. But while the latter is simply 

 a local division of time, Hmited to the Greenwich meridian, the 

 unit measure is, on the other hand, not so limited: it is equally 

 related to all points on the earth's surface in every latitude and 

 longitude. Under this aspect, the wider functions and general 

 character of the unit measure remove it from the category of 

 ordinary days, as we understand the familiar expression; and, to 

 obviate all doubt and uncertainty regarding it, it is in the highest 

 degree desirable that the universal time-unit should be distin- 

 guished by some appellation by which, apart from its local rela- 

 tionship, it may always be indisputably known. 



It was Lord Chief Justice Coke who said that "error is the 

 parent of confusion." As the primary object of time-reform is to 

 obviate confusion, we should take every precaution to preclude 

 error. Is it not, therefore, expedient that we should adopt means 

 to secure a proper and appropriate designation for the unit meas- 

 ure, and abandon as misnomers each one of the terms which have 

 hitherto been applied to it? In a paper on the subject of time- 



reckoning, published in the "Transactions" of this society in 

 1886, the unit measure is defined, its uses described, and it is like- 

 wise pointed out that its distinctive appellation remains undeter- 

 mined. I consider it to be my duty to draw attention to the want; 

 and, while it would be an act of presumption on my part to pro- 

 pose a name, I will venture the remark that in the general interests 

 of science an effort should be made to supply it. It has been 

 found expedient to derive technical terms from a classical etymol- 

 ogy, and I beg leave to suggest that the same rule might be fol- 

 lowed in this case with obvious advantage. Whatever name be 

 chosen, if derived from a Greek or Latin root, the vvord would in 

 all countries have the same definite meaning, and could readily 

 be incorporated into all languages. If such a word be adopted 

 as will clearly express " a unit measure of time," it will gradually 

 come into general use, as in the parallel cases of "telegram," 

 " telegraph," "photograph," "lithograph," etc.; and by this means 

 all nationalities will be enabled to give expression to one and the 

 same meaning when they refer to time-reckoning in its broad 

 significance. 



I humbly submit that the Royal Society of Canada will confer 

 a general benefit, and act becomingly, by taking the initiative 

 in obtaining an appropriate designation for the unit measure of 

 time. 



If that view be concurred in by this section of the society, I 

 respectfully suggest that a special committee be appointed to 

 consider the subject, with instructions to report during the present 

 session.! 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



A LABORATORY for plant-biology has been recently opened at 

 Fontainebleau, says Nature of Sept. 11. It is under the direction 

 of M. Bonnier, professor of botany at the Sorbonne in Paris, to 

 whom application should be made by any contemplating research 

 there. 



— In the London Times for Sept. 9 we read the following note 

 on how to keep salt dry : ''The Dutch Indian Government offers 

 a prize of 10,000 fl. for the best practical answer to the question 

 'In what manner should the salt which is sold in Dutch India in 

 small packets be packed up so as to keep dry ? ' " 



— The fifty-ninth annual exhibition of the American Institute 

 of this city will open on Oct. 1, and continue until the end of 

 November. The institute's exhibition building covers the large 

 block of ground between Second and Third Avenues and 63d and 

 64th Streets, affording ample space for a display which is looked 

 forward to with increasing interest from year to year. 



— A wonderful example of erosion may be seen in the illustra- 

 tion to Professor Michie Smith's article on the eruption of Ban- 

 daisan in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, vol. 

 xvii. p. 70. The valley there depicted was produced by the ero- 

 sive power of a small sti-eam within the short space of ten months. 

 Its depth, when Professor Smith visited the neighborhood, was 80 

 feet, and in some places little short of 150 feet. 



— It is a fact known to few, that Russia has taken a place 

 among the quicksilver-producing countries. We note in The 

 Scottish Oeographical Magazine that this metal is at present 

 extracted at two places,— near the village of Kurush in Dagestan: 

 and near the village of Saizef, in the district of Bachmut in 

 Ekaterinoslav. At the former place the ore is said to contain the 

 enormous proportion of 74.7 per cent of quicksilver. At Saizef, 

 whei-e the ore contains only 0.32 to 4.5 per cent, the pure metal 

 extracted in 1889 weighed 164i tons. Diamond-boring has lately 

 been adopted, and a fairly rich lode of cinnabar has been struck 

 at a depth of 360 feet. 



— The special committee of Section III. of the Royal Society of 

 Canada, to whom the expediency of suggesting an appropriate 

 name for the unit measure of time was referred, reported as fol- 

 lows at the geijeral meeting of the society held May 29, 1890 : 

 " The committee recognizes the advisability of obtaining a suita- 

 ble nomenclature, and concurs in the views expressed in the 

 address of the president of the section as to the expediency of 

 1 This report is given elsewhere as a note. 



