26 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



and the labors of each one are stimulated by the appreciation and 

 applause of his fellows. 



I am acquainted with no plan of adult education better calculated 

 to elevate the mental character of a community or to develop the 

 local natural history of a district than that of a well organized and 

 efficiently conducted association of this kind. Such establishments, 

 I am happy to say, are now becoming common in every part of the 

 United States. They have taken the place, in many cases, of the de- 

 bating societies, which were formerly instituted for mental improve- 

 ment. To the latter it might justly be objected that they tend to 

 promote a talent of sophistical reasoning, rather than to engender an 

 uncompromising love of truth. The habit of fluent speaking may 

 undoubtedly be cultivated at the expense of profound thought, and 

 however j^romotive at times of the temporary interests of the indi- 

 vidual, can never be supposed to tend to the permanent advancement 

 of the species. 



Meteorology. — The system of meteorological observations under the 

 direction of the Institution and the Patent Office has been so repeatedly 

 described in previous reports that it will scarcely be necessary to give 

 any more at this time than an account of the present state of the work. 

 The system was commenced in 1849, and has since then been gradually 

 improving in the number of observers, character of the instruments, 

 and the precision with which the records are made. The Institution 

 has awakened a wide interest in the subject of meteorology, and has 

 diffused a considerable amount of information with regard to it which 

 could not readily be obtained through other means. The manufac- 

 ture of instruments, compared with standards furnished b)^ the Insti- 

 tution from London and Paris, has been an important means of 

 advancing the science. The work is still continued by James Green, 

 173 Grand street, New York, and during the past year an increasing 

 number of full sets has been purchased by observers. The Institution 

 has continued to distribute rain-gages, with which observations are 

 now made on the quantity of aqueous precipitation in nearly every 

 State and Territory of the Union. 



We are indebted to the National Telegraph line for a series of 

 observations from New Orleans to New York, and as far westward 

 as Cincinnati, Ohio, which have been published in the '' Evening 

 Star," of this city. These reports have excited much interest, and 

 could they be extended further north, and more generally to the 

 westward, they would furnish important information as to the ap- 



