INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1873. xxxi 



Among the stations thus transferred by the Smithsonian 

 Institution are some in the extreme northern portion of Brit- 

 ish America, and others in Mexico and Central America, and 

 at various points in our own territory not yet reached by 

 telegraph. 



The meteorologists of this country have long awaited with 

 pleasant expectations the publication of a new edition of the 

 well-known work on the winds of the northern hemisphere 

 by Professor Coffin, and much concern has been expressed at 

 his untimely death, before the completion of the great work 

 that he had in hand. It is, however, gratifying to be able to 

 state that the Smithsonian Institution has been so fortunate 

 as to secure the services of Dr. Woeikof, of St. Petersburg, 

 well kuowm for numerous contributions to meteorological 

 science, and who, making a stay of some months in this 

 country, has consented to superintend the final preparation 

 of Professor Coffin's w^ork for the press : its appearance may 

 be expected during the year 1874. 



Meteorological literature, under the stimulus of the nation- 

 al systems of practical meteorology which now are support- 

 ed by every civilized nation on the globe, yearly increases in 

 bulk and variety. While it might appear invidious to make 

 a comparison between the labors of so many investigators, it 

 may, on the other hand, not be amiss to specify the following 

 among the most interesting investigations of the past year. 



The connection between sun spots and terrestrial phenom- 

 ena has received careful attention from Messrs. Lockyer and 

 Meldrum, the former of whom announces, as a principle in 

 science, the idea that scientific progress consists essentially 

 in hunting after cycles in the phenomena of nature, and then 

 tracing these cycles to their ultimate causes, in accordance 

 Avith which he gave a ready, though it seems somewhat prem- 

 ature acquiescence to the suggestion of Meldrum, that the 

 cyclones of the Indian seas exhibited a periodical fluctuation 

 as to their resemblance and severity, coinciding with the 

 fiuctuation in the spots of the sun. The attempt to establish 

 a similar periodicity for the rain-fall of India was made by 

 Meldrum, and the same attempt in Europe was made by 

 Symons, Jelinek, and others. These, however, w^ere but par- 

 tially successful. The careful conclusion of Jelinek being 

 that the chances w^ere equally divided between the existence 



