THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 17 



1. To all the meteorological observers and other collaborators of the Institution. 



2. To donors to its Library or Museum. 



3. To colleges and other educational establishments. 



4. To public libraries and literary and scientific societies. 



5. To teachers or individuals who are engaged in special studies, and who make 

 direct application for them. 



Besides the works which have been published entirely at the expense of the In- 

 stitution, aid has been furnished by subscription for copies to be distributed to 

 foreign libraries of a number of works which fall within the class adopted by the 

 programme. The principal works of this kind for which subscriptions have been 

 made are as follows : Agassiz's Contributions to Natural History, Gould's Astro- 

 nomical Journal, Shea's American Linguistics, Runkle's Mathematical Monthly, 

 Deane's Fossil Footprints, Tuomey & Holmes' Fossils of South Carolina, Peirce's 

 Analytic Mechanics. 



Meteorology — The investigation of all questions relative to meteorology has 

 been an object to which the Institution has devoted special attention, and one of 

 its first efforts was to organize a voluntary system of observation, which should 

 extend as widely as possible over the whole of the North American continent. It 

 induced a skilful artisan, under its direction, to commence the manufacture of care- 

 fully compared and accurately graduated instruments, now generally known as 

 the Smithsonian standards. It prepared and furnished a series of instructions for 

 the use of the instruments and the observations of meteorological phenomena; also 

 three series of blank forms as registers. 



It next organized a body of intelligent observers, and in a comparatively short 

 time brought the system into practical operation; each year the number of observers 

 increased, and where one ceased his connection with the enterprise, several came 

 forward to supply his place. By an arrangement with the Surgeon General of the 

 army, the observations made at the United States military posts in different parts 

 of the country, and also the system which had previously been establi.^hed by the 

 State of New York, were remodelled so as to harmonize with that of the Institu- 

 tion. Gentlemen interested in science residin-g in the British provinces, and at 

 nearly all the posts of the Hudson's Bay Company, also in Mexico, Central Ame- 

 rica, the West Indies, and some places in South America, &c., joined in this enter- 

 prise. All these contribute their services without compensation. Their only re- 

 ward is the satisfaction of co-operating with each other and the Institution in the 

 effort to supply data and materials for investigation. Any returns, indeed, which 

 the Institution has in its power to make are gladly rendered in a hearty acknow- 

 ledgment of assistance, and in copies of all the Smithsonian publications likely to 

 be of interest. 



The publications of the Institution contain many memoirs which have tended 

 to advance the science of meteorology. Among these may be mentioned the me- 

 teorological and physical tables prepared at the expense of the Institution by Pro- 

 fessor Guvot, and fiUinj; a lar^e octavo volume of the Miscellaneous Collections. 

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