30 REPOET OF THE SECRETARY. 



ing peripheral irritation acts upon the uervous system which regulates 

 the production and dissipation of animal heat"; and that the nature 

 of fever is "a nutritive disturbance in which there is an elevation of 

 the bodily temperature and also an increase of the production of heat 

 by an increase of the chemical movements in the accumulated material 

 of the body; this increase being sometimes sufficient, sometimes in- 

 sufficient, to compensate for the loss of that heat which is derived di- 

 rectly from the destruction of the surplus food in the body; very little 

 or no food being taken in severe fever." 



It is the custom of the Institution to give to the author a certain 

 number of copies of his memoirs, this varying with the extent and cost 

 of production. The author is also invited to furnish a list of specialists 

 particularly interested in the research covered by the memoir, whether 

 resident at home or abroad, and to these, or as many as can conveniently 

 be supplied, copies are sent free of cost, and the fact of this being done 

 by the request of the author is stated. 



The author is also allowed to print as many additional copies as he 

 thinks proper, at his own expense, and to dispose of them as he pleases, 

 either by giving tbem away or selling them. The more extended the 

 distribution of a memoir, the better is the principle of the Institution 

 carried out, viz, that of the increase and diffusion of knowledge. 



Dr. Wood has availed himself of this opportunity by having 250 extra 

 copies printed and placed on the market with the imprint of J. B. Lip- 

 pincott, & Co., of Philadelphia. 



Meteorology. — The relationship of the Smithsonian Institution to 

 the subject of American meteorology is well known, especially the 

 fact that until the establishment of the Weather Bureau of the War 

 Department the Institution had the entire burden of maintaining a series 

 of observing stations throughout the country and of publishing the re- 

 sults in a series of memoirs, which are accepted as of standard value by 

 all meteorologists. When in 1871 its system of active work was trans- 

 ferred to the Signal Office of the War Department the publication of 

 digested results was not intermitted, but continued, so as to cover the 

 entire period of activity up to the year in question. 



Among the meteorological monographs published by the Institution, 

 that on the rainfall of the United- States prepared under the dn^ection of 

 Mr. Charles A. Schott, of the United States Coast Survey, was one of the 

 most important. This work, with its digested tables of rainfall and the 

 series of rainfall maps, extending from the earliest records to the year 

 18G6, was used for a number of years in determining the questions of 

 general climatology and the relations of plants to altitude and locality, 

 and to the extent and degree of reservoirs for storing water, «&c. 



In the interval between the completion of the first work to the trans- 

 fer of the system many additional observations had been made, involv- 

 ing the rectification of some of the general conclusions, and it was 

 determined to publish a continuation of the work, down to 1878, em- 



