a prophylactic
against malaria, his wife administered doses of whiskey. The rest
of the history need not be told. It illustrates the maxim that
"blood will tell," which I fear is as true in scientific work as in
any other field of human activity.

A man of totally different blood, the best in fact, entered the
office shortly before Meier broke down. This was Mr. Cleveland
Keith, son of Professor Reuel Keith, who was one of the professors
at the observatory when it was started. His patience and ability
led to his gradually taking the place of a foreman in supervising
the work pertaining to the reduction of the observations, and the
construction of the tables of the planets. Without his help, I fear
I should never have brought the tables to a conclusion. He died in
1896, just as the final results of the work were being put together.

High among the troublesome problems with which I had to deal while
in charge of the Nautical Almanac, was that of universal time.
All but the youngest of my readers will remember the period when every
railway had its own meridian, by the time of which its trains were
run, which had to be changed here and there in the case of the great
trunk lines, and which seldom agreed with the local time of a place.
In the Pennsylvania station at Pittsburg were three different times;
one that of Philadelphia, one of some point farther west, and the
third the local Pittsburg time. The traveler was constantly liable
to miss a train, a connection, or an engagement by the doubt and
confusion thus arising.

This was remedied in 1883 by the adoption of our present system of
standard times of four different meridians, the introduction of which
was one of the great reforms of our generation. When this change
was made, I was in favor of using Washington time as the standard,
instead of going across the ocean to Greenwich for a meridian.
But those who were pressing the measure wanted to have a system for
the whole world, and for this purpose the meridian of Greenwich was
the natural one. Practically our purpose was served as well by the
Greenwich meridian as it would have been by that of Washington.

The year following this change an international meridian conference
was held at Washington, on the invitation of our government, to
agree upon a single prime meridian to be adopted by the whole world
in measuring longitudes and indicating time.

Of course the meridian of Greenwich was the only one that