B. TERRESTRIAL PHYSICS AND METEOROLOGY. 69 



deavored to combine both scientific and utilitarian objects 

 in this new enterprise. His first aim, lie states, has been to 

 enlist the physician, the agriculturist, the landed proprietor, 

 and the navigator in the acquisition of thoroughly trust- 

 worthy and complete observations, and in those special in- 

 quiries which appear most essentially to pertain to each class 

 of observers. The acquisition of new standard instruments 

 has been attended with great and unexpected delays, but 

 considerable success has been achieved in the collection of 

 old meteorological records extending over very considerable 

 periods of time. The larger part of the outfit of the observ- 

 ing stations has been ordered from Negretti .& Zambra, of 

 London, while aneroid barometers are expected from Gold- 

 schmidt, of Zurich. The tables printed by the Smithsonian 

 Institution have been adopted in the reduction of the obser- 

 vations. Among the special results we may mention the 

 mean temperature at Cordova for the year, which has been 

 CI. 7 Fahr. ; the mean barometric pressure, 28.465 inches. 

 The entire range in barometric pressure has been only 1.1 

 inches. The driest month has been that of October, 1873, 

 while the greatest average relative humidity occurred in 

 February. The total rain-fall at the observatory is 32.4 

 inches, being apparently very slightly less than fell in the 

 adjacent city. Similar means are also given for Bahia 

 Blanca and for Buenos Ayres. Frequent reference is made 

 in Dr. Gould's report to the character of the work of the 

 United States Army Signal Corps, with which body his me- 

 teorological office is in frequent correspondence. Buenos 

 Ayres Weekly Standard, March 18, 1874. 



INFLUENCE OF THE MOON ON THE VTEATHER. 



Wierzbicki, assistant at the observatory at Cracow, has 

 made use of forty-five years of continuous observations on 

 the climate of that station to investigate the influence of the 

 moon. The first person who made any practical investiga- 

 tion of this subject appears to have been Laplace, who 

 studied the influence of the moon upon the height of the ba- 

 rometer. In the same direction also Bouvard labored, basins* 

 his investigation on twelve years of observations at Paris, 

 and he proved that the influence of the moon upon atmos- 

 pheric pressure was so inconsiderable, at least for the latitude 



