REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 29 
countries. Among them are observations made at Constantinople 
for the year ending September, 1863; daily telegraphic reports of 
the weather in Europe, communicated to the Central Physical Ob- 
servatory at St. Petersburg, Russia, for the year ending September, 
1864, translated and compiled by Mr. Edwin Phelps, United States 
consul; meteorological review for the year 1864, from observations 
at the Leprosy hospital of Lungeguard in the city of Bergen, Norway, 
reduced by O. H. Dreutzer, United States consul; monthly tables 
for a part of the year 1864, from the consul at Turk’s Island, West 
Indies. If all the American consuls in foreign countries would 
collect and send to the State Department local publications contain- 
ing meteorological tables, many valuable additions might be furnished. 
The Navy Department, as heretofore, has transmitted to the Insti- 
tution monthly reports kept at the naval hospitals at Chelsea, New 
York, and Philadelphia. 
A circular and a chart of stars prepared by the Connecticut 
Academy of Arts and Sciences was published by the Smithsonian Insti- 
tution, and distributed to its observers for the purpose of obtaining 
records of the meteors that might appear on the night of November 
13-14, 1864, but the general cloudiness of the night prevented the 
attainment of any valuable results. 
The three rooms in which the meteorological records were kept 
were destroyed by the fire on the 24th of January, 1865. Owing to 
the great rapidity with which the fire progressed much valuable ma- 
terial was lost, but fortunately the larger portion of the contents of 
the rooms were saved. Among the articles lost were the principal 
instruments used at the Institution for meteorological observations, 
including the self-registering apparatus for recording the direction 
and velocity of the wind, constructed by Dr. Smallwood, of Montreal, 
and partially described in the Smithsonian reports for 1856 and 1860. 
It had been in operation since 1858. All the records kept by it were 
lost. As soon as a minute investigation can be made as to the miss- 
ing sheets of the general records, a list of deficiencies will be 
published, and it is hoped that a portion at least of these may be 
restored by copies of the duplicates retained by the observers. 
Laboratory—During the past year the laboratory has been in 
charge of Dr. Charles M. Wetherill. The experiments mentioned in 
the last report on materials for light-house illumination have been 
continued, and a series of examinations has been made of different 
substances submitted for that purpose by the government. The most 
