In the Geodetic Conference at Rome, where England, the United
States, France, Prussia, Switzerland, Italy, and Ham- burg were all separately represented, it was decided on Tuesday, by twenty-two votes to five, to accept the Meridian of Green- wich from which to reckon longitude, and to reckon it on from West to East from 0 degrees to 360 degrees, so that there shall no longer be East and West longi- tude. Farther, it was decided, by twenty votes against eight, to begin the reckoning of the day from midnight, i.e., from the beginning of the civil day, instead of, as our Green- wich astronomers now do, from noon. In other words, eleven a.m. will in future be the eleventh astronomical hour as well as the eleventh civil hour (instead of being the twenty-third astronomical hour, as it now is) ; while eleven p.m. will be the twenty-third astronomical hour, instead of, as it now is, the eleventh astronomical hour. It is hoped that the decision in favour of the English meridian of longitude will tend to per- suade England to accept the Continental weights and measures, and to join the Metrical Convention of May 20th, 1875. That, however, is a very serious matter. To popularise metres, and :centimetres, and kilometres is a very much greater affair than to get a learned class to accept a special longitudinal meridian.
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