318 SCIENTIFIC RECORD FOR 1884. 



freqnent as the immediate followers of southeast lower winds. (D. M. Z., 

 1, p. 201.) 



206. fWrthout in the least detracting from the originality and great 

 value of Clement Ley's laborious observations and well-grounded defi- 

 nite results, it is at least proper to state that on pages -IS, 49, and 179 

 of Espy's Fourth Meteorological Report and in others of Espy's writings 

 will be found results almosi precisely the same as those of Clement Ley. 

 The reader who consults this, the last work published by Espy, scarcely 

 a year before he died, will perhaps be glad to have his attention called 

 to Espy's labors subsequent to the i)ublication of his Philosophy of 

 Storms. After returning from Euro])e, Esi)y was, in 1842, appointed 

 meteorologist in the office of the Surgeon-General of the Army (Gen- 

 eral Lawson). His first Meteorological Ecixsit, dated October, 1843, 

 and printed in February, 1845, was addressed to Surgeon-General 

 Lawson. His second report, dated Xovember, 1840, was addressed 

 to William B. Preston, Secretary of the Kavy, from which we infer 

 that he had been in the mean time transferred to the ifavy Depart- 

 ment, but I have not yet been able to find that this report was ever 

 separately published. His third report, dated October, 1850, with notes, 

 dated January and October, 1851, and an ai)pentlix containing rules 

 to mariners, dated January, 1851, seems to have been addressed to 

 Secretary W. A. Graham, but to have been juiblishcd by Secretary 

 J. C. Dobbin in 1852, and it was preceded by a reprint of the first 

 and second reports. The fourth report was evidently written orig- 

 inally in October, 1852, but was not forwarded by the Secretary of the 

 ISTavy until specially called for by resolution of Congress, July 24, 1854, 

 nor was it even then printed until a special order was issued in 1857. 

 Ju the printing additional notes were evidently inserted, most of which 

 may be considered as dating from 1857. The contents of the resulting 

 quarto volume, usually called " Espy's Fourth Eeport," and whose title- 

 page bears date of 1857, may therefore be approximately analyzed as 

 follows: First report, of 1843, pp. 1-10; second report, of 1849, pp. 10- 

 40; third report, of 1850, pp. 40-90; a])pendix to third report, 1851, 

 pp. 97-110; fourth report, of 1852, pi). 117-178; additional notes of 

 1857, pp. 17^234. 



Both directly and indirectly the United States owes to Espy the 

 stimulus and knowledge that made our present Weather Bureau a jios- 

 sibility. In all that jjertains to the formation of cloud and rain, the verti- 

 cal distribution of temperature, the theory of the psychrometer, the 

 diurnal periodicity in the winds, the structure of thunder and hail 

 storms, tornadoes, and general storms, he was far in advance of his 

 time. The republication of his minor works and an analysis of his life 

 and influence would afford a most delightful picture and instructive his- 

 tory.] 



207. R. Abercromby contributes a note descriptive of various forms 



