24 EIGHTH ANNUAL REPORT OF 



this country. It is believed that such results will be obtained as will 

 justify the amount of expenditure of the Smithsonian fund which has 

 been devoted to this purpose. 



The reductions which had been made up to the close of the last ses- 

 sion of the Regents were presented with the annual report to Congress, 

 and were ordered to be printed. It has been found, however, that the 

 tables cannot be presented in an octavo form, and that a special reso- 

 lution of the Senate will be required to print them in a quarto volume. 



An interesting part of the meteorological observations is now in pro- 

 cess of reduction at Greenwich, free of expense to the Institution, by 

 Captain Lefroy, late superintendent of the Toronto Observatory. He 

 has undertal^en this labor from a love of science, and has received 

 some assistance in the way of clerk hire (as he informs me) from the 

 fund placed in charge of the Royal Society by the British government 

 for the promotion of science. The reduction will include not only all 

 the observations collected by the Smithsonian Institution, but also 

 those which can be obtained from every part of the earth during five 

 years, beginning with 1848. 



Among the questions proposed to be answered by Captain Lefroy 

 in discussing the observations, are the following: 



1. Does the aurora ever occur in low latitudes when it is wapting in 

 higher ones"? 



2. Is it developed in continuous zones, or are there wide gaps in these 

 zones; if the latter, have they any connexion with other atmospheric 

 phenomena? 



3. What are the ordinary diurnal laws of its development? 



4. Can the facts be reconciled with any theory giving it a material 

 objective existence, or is it an optical phenomenon ? 



5. Can the facts be reconciled with the zodiacal theory ? 



6. What are its geographical limits ; and what causes their singu- 

 lar variation from day to day? 



7. Are lines of equal frequenc}^ on the globe, or equal intensity, cir- 

 cles at all ? 



Definite answers to these questions would clear the gi'ound for the 

 establishment of a rational theory as to the cause of this phenomenon, 

 the want of which, alter all that has been said and written upon it, is 

 an opprobrium to the science of the present century. 



The results of Captain Lefroy's deductions will be presented in the 

 form of a memoir to the Smithsonian Institution. 



Propositions have been made during the past year to apply to gov- 

 ernment for aid in extending the meteorological system, or to transfer it 

 from the Smithsonian Institution to the National Observatory, the De- 

 partment of the Interior, or to an independent establishment supported 

 by a direct appropriation from Congress. 



In answer to these propositions the Secretary, in behalf of the Re- 

 gents, has stated that it was not in accordance with the policy of the 

 Institution to ask the aid of Congress for the purpose of carrying on any 

 of its operations ; but that it is consistent with its policy to relinquish 

 any line of research which can be carried on equally well by other 

 means. If, therefore, any of the plans proposed can be accom- 

 plished, the Institution will cheerfully relinquish this field, and devote 



