22 KEPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



order to reimburse himself for the original cost of the mamiscripts 

 he was induced to dispose of them to a private individual. 



The portions of the manuscripts relating to meteorology were 

 placed in the hands of Professor Coffin for reduction. They consist, 

 either in summary or in detail, of the results of a series of nearly three 

 hundred and fifty thousand observations commenced at Havre, France, 

 October 14, 1826, and continued during the voyage of Dr. Berlandier 

 to Tampico, and afterwards at intervals in various parts of Mexico, 

 chiefly at Matamoras, till April 26, 1851 ; also, of a series taken at 

 the city of Mexico, in 1827, by General Teran, and at Goliad, Texas, 

 in 1832 and 1833, by Dr. Raphael Chowell. The whole had been 

 collected and arranged with care by Dr. Berlandier, preparatory 

 to a thorough reduction, which was intended to show not only the 

 mean results, but all the more important relations existing between 

 different atmospheric phenomena, when death closed his labors, and 

 put an end to his interesting and useful investigations. 



3, The family of the lamented Dr. Hare has presented to the Insti- 

 tution a paper describing an instrument denominated by its author a 

 cycloidegraph. It is intended to illustrate the motions of particles of 

 air when subjected to a gyratory or whirling motion, combined with 

 one of translation. This instrument, of which a drawing will be 

 given, evinces the ingenuity and power of mechanical combinations, of 

 which Dr. Hare gave so many manifestations during the long course 

 of his industrious and successful scientific career. 



The paper is accompanied by engraved illustrations of the curves 

 produced by the machine, and contains a series of propositions in- 

 tended to demonstrate the centripetal theory of storms. As the last 

 contribution to physical science of one of the patrons of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, and its first honorary member, it is proper that it 

 should find a place in the Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge. 



4. Thenextcommunication to be mentioned, is an account of obser- 

 vations made on the great solar eclipse of September 7, 1858, in which 

 the total shadow of the moon passed obliquely over South America, a 

 few degrees south of the equator. Accurate observations of the 

 phenomena presented during the total obscuration of the sun afford 

 such important means of enlarging our knowledge of the physical 

 character of that luminary, and the event is of such rare occurrence, 

 that the opportunity to study the phenomena should never . be 

 neglected. The Smithsonian Institution, therefore, readily agreed to 

 a proposition made by Lieutenant Gilliss, to undertake the observation 



