submit the following suggestions to the kind attention of the
Conference.

It is important to find for the more densely populated countries the
simplest mode possible of transition from local to universal time, and
_vice versa_; and we believe, therefore, that it would be convenient
for the practical purposes of the question to adopt for the beginning
of the universal day the midnight of Greenwich, and not the noon, as
was deemed advisable by the Conference of Rome.

This modification would offer for the whole of Europe and for the
greatest part of America the advantage of avoiding the double date in
local and universal time during the principal business hours of the
day, and would afford great facilities in the transition from local
time to universal.

In adopting the universal time for the astronomical almanacs and for
astronomical ephemerides, and in counting the beginning of the day
from the midnight of Greenwich, there would be, it is true, a
modification of the astronomical chronology, as heretofore used; but
we think it easier for the astronomers to change the starting point,
and to make allowance for these 12 hours of difference in their
calculations, than it would be for the public and for the business
men, if the date for the universal time began at noon, and not at
midnight.

The Conference at Rome proposes to count the longitudes from O° to
360° in the direction from west to east. It seems to us that this
system can lead to misunderstanding in the local and universal
chronology for the countries beyond the 180° east of Greenwich.