of angular space and of time. Numerous instruments were
even made according to the new system. As to time, the reform was
introduced too abruptly, and, we might say, without enough discretion,
and it came into conflict with old habits and was quickly abandoned;
but as to the division of angular space, in which the decimal division
presented many advantages, the reform sustained itself much better,
and is still used for certain purposes. So, the division of the
circumference into 400 parts was adopted by Laplace, and we find it
constantly employed in the Mecanique Celeste. Delambre and Mechain
used, for the measurement of the are of the meridian from which the
metre was derived, repeating circles divided into "_grades_." Finally,
in our own time, Colonel Perrier, Chief of the Geographical Division
of our Department of War, has used instruments decimally divided, and
at the present time logarithmic tables appropriate to that method of
division are in course of calculation.

But it is especially when it is a question of making long
calculations of angular space that the decimal system presents great
advantages. In this respect we find, so to speak, only one opinion
expressed by scientists.

The Conference at Rome, which brought together so many astronomers,
geodetists, eminent topographers--that is to say, the men most
competent and most interested in the question--expressed in respect to
it a desire, the high authority of which it is impossible to mistake.

It is, therefore, now evident that the decimal system, which has
already done such good service in the measurements of length, volume,
and weight, is called upon to render analagous services in the domain
of angular dimensions and of time.

I know that this question of the decimal division encounters
legitimate doubts, principally as to its application to the
measurement of time. It is feared that we want to destroy habits fixed
for centuries, and upset established usages.

In this respect, gentlemen, I think that we ought to be fully
satisfied. The teachings of the past will be respected. It will be
perceived that if we failed at the time of the Revolution, it is
because we put forward a reform which was not limited to the domain of
science, but which did violence to the habits of daily life. It is
necessary to take the question up again, but with due regard to the
limits which common sense and experience would prescribe to wise and
well-informed men.

I thin