-1855] WRITINGS OF JOSEPH HENRY. 25 



tion yet made toward a knowledge of the climatology of the 

 United States. Truth however will not permit us to express 

 the same opinion in reference to the isothermal charts which 

 accompany this volume. These we consider as premature 

 publications, constructed from insufficient data, and on a 

 principle of projection by Avhich it is not possible to repre- 

 sent correctly the relative temperatures in mountainous 

 regions. 



With the learning and zeal for science possessed bj^ the 

 officers of the United States army, and the importance 

 which they attach to meteorology, in its connection with 

 engineering and topography, it is hoped that this system 

 may be further extended and improved, that each station 

 may be supplied with a compared thermometer and psy- 

 chrometer, and that at a few stations a series of hourly ob- 

 servations may be established, for at least a single year. 

 The present Secretary of War, we are assured, would will- 

 ingly sanction any proposition for the improvement of this 

 system, and we doubt not the Surgeon General is desirous 

 of rendering it as perfect as the means at his disposal will 

 permit. 



A local system of meteorological observations was estab- 

 lished in the State of New York in 1825, and has been unin- 

 terruptedly conducted from that time until the present. 

 Each of the academies which participated in the literature 

 fund of the State was furnished with a thermometer and 

 rain-gauge, and directed to make three daily observations 

 relative to the temperature, the direction of the wind, cloud- 

 iness, &c. The system was re-modeled, in 1850, so as to 

 conform to the directions of the Smithsonian Institution, 

 and a considerable number of the academies were furnished 

 with full sets of compared instruments, consisting of a barom- 

 eter, thermometer, psychrometer, rain-gauge, and wind-vane. 

 A summary of the results of the observations from 1826 

 to 1850, inclusive, has just been published by the State of 

 New York, under the direction of the regents of the Uni- 

 versity. They are presented in the form of a quarto vol- 

 ume, to which is prefixed a map of the State, showing the 



