ARMY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



ARNOTT, NEIL. 



55 



a 



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lake port*, and cities. Of the total number of cau- 



tiouun n displayed, seventy-five per cunt. 



ted as justified. In no 



i* any great storm swept over the ports of the 



Stati-s without preannounoement. 



,!i trrangement with* the Post-Office Deport- 



jTiiited u taniKTri' bulletins," on which 



daily reports of the Signal-OfficOj have 



distributed and displayed i" frames^ daily at 



sis uuiiiy different post-offices in different cities, vil- 



'i 1 hamlets, in different States, for the use of 



rioultural population of the country, and they 



to displayed, on an average, within ten 



:r"iu the time they have left the Signal-Office 



iu Washington. 



The river reports, giving the average depth of 

 water in the different great rivers of the interior^ 

 ati'l notice of dangerous changes, for the benefit ot 

 river commerce and the population iu the vicinity, 

 have been regularly made, telegraphed, bulletined in 

 frillies, and published by the press at the different 

 rivrr ports and cities, and, in cases of great floods, 

 special river reports have been issued. 



By the great diffusion given the reports of this 

 office through the press, the display of the different 

 office bulletins ana forms of report, the maps and 

 regular publications, it is estimated that the state- 

 ments based upon the information gathered upon 

 the files of the office and issued for the public use 

 reach daily at least one-third of all the households 

 in the United States. 



The publications of the office, the Weekly Weather 

 Chronicle and the JfontMy Weather Review, have 

 been regularly issued during the year. A number 

 of valuable charts have been prepared. A single at- 

 las condenses into twelve charts results as to the 

 average courses of movements of areas of disturb- 

 ance in the United States, derived from the studies 

 of the 3,875 charts charted at the Signal-Office in 

 the period from March, 1871, to April, 1874. 



As iu the preceding years, a very considerable 

 number of observations nave, at the request of the 

 Department, been taken on vessels at sea, to com- 

 plement the synchronous reports of the service, and 

 forwarded. Their utility is evident in the study of 

 storms approaching our coasts, or which endanger 

 vessels sailing from our ports. 



At the Congress of persons charged with meteor- 

 ological duties, assembled at Vienna in 1873, a prop- 

 osition, to the effect that it is desirable, with a view to 

 their exchange, that at least one uniform observa- 

 tion of such character as to be suitable for the prep- 

 aration of synoptic charts be taken and recorded 

 daily and simultaneously throughout the world, was 

 adopted. 



Special correspondence had by the Signal-Officer, 

 by authority of the department, with scientists and 

 chiefs of meteorological services representing the 

 different countries, has resulted in arrangements by 

 which a record of observations to bo taken daily, 

 simultaneously with the observations taken through- 

 out the United States and the adjacent islands, is 

 exchanged semi-monthly. These reports are to 

 cover the territorial extent of Algiers, Austria, Bel- 

 gium, Great Britain, Denmark, France, Germany, 

 Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Bussia in Europe 

 and" Asia, Sweden and Norway, Spain, Switzerland, 

 and Turkey. Requests for similar codperation are 

 proffered to other nations as rapidly as practicable. 

 The results had from this report are considered of 

 especial importance, combining a codperation thus 

 already extending around the northern hemisphere 

 to aid in the solution of questions upon which the 

 United States has entered, and preparing for an 

 exchange of telegraphic reports when that may be 

 deemed advisable. Thus it has been left to the 

 . 'uugest nation to organize, and in a great measure 

 perfect, a system of \yeather observations and mete- 

 orological studies which will soon encircle half the 

 globe. 



The sea-coast service of the Signal-Corps, in con- 

 nection with the life-saving service, has been con- 

 tinued during the year. Telegraphic lines reaching 

 from Barnegat to Cape May and from Norfolk to 

 Cape Uatteras have been constrncted, the UtU<>n 

 upon them occupied, and the telegraphic lines oper- 

 uted by the officers and enlisted men of the signai- 

 scrvice. The telegraphic wires connect each station 

 directly with the War Department. 



The chief Signal-Officer earnestly recom- 

 mends a more permanent organization of tlie 

 signal-service, as necessary for the interests 

 of the United States. 



In June, 1874, $15,000 was appropriated by 

 Congress "to enable the Secretary of War to 

 begin the publication of the official record of 

 the late war, both of the Union and Confeder- 

 ate armies." This work has been commenced 

 with a determination to spare no pains to make 

 the arrangement of the records simple and com- 

 plete, and at the same time to omit all irrele- 

 vant matter. 



One of the most important military changes 

 during the year was, the removal of the head- 

 quarters of the commanding general from 

 "Washington to St. Louis. This change took 

 place October 1st. " Here," says General 

 Sherman, " I am centrally located, and, should 

 occasion arise, I can personally proceed to any 

 point of this continent where my services are 

 needed." 



ARNOTT, NEIL, M. D., F. R. S., F. G. S., an 

 eminent British physician, physicist, and phi- 

 lanthropist, born in Arbroath, Scotland, in 

 1788 ; died in London, March 4, 1874. He was 

 a member of a family somewhat noted in the 

 annals of Scotland, his family home being at 

 Dysart, near Montrose, Scotland. He was edu- 

 cated at the Aberdeen Grammar-School, and 

 subsequently at Marischal College, in the Uni- 

 versity of Aberdeen, and, after taking the med- 

 ical course in the university, went to London in 

 1806, and became the pupil of Sir Everard Home, 

 Surgeon of St. George's Hospital. After pass- 

 ing his medical examination, he spent some 

 years as a surgeon in the naval service of the 

 East India Company, and in 1811 settled in 

 London as a physician, where he soon attained 

 a very large practice. In 1815 he was ap- 

 pointed physician to the French embassy, and 

 soon afterward to the Spanish embassy. In 

 1823-'24, Dr. Arnott was induced to deliver a 

 course of lectures on natural philosophy in its 

 applications to medicine, a subject to which 

 he had given great thought. These lectures 

 formed the basis of his valuable and popular 

 work, first published in 1827, u Elements of 

 Physics ; or, Natural Philosophy, General and 

 Medical." This work was for forty years the 

 standard work on physics, but the professional 

 duties of the author were so engrossing that it 

 was not until 1864 that he was able to liud 

 time to prepare the concluding chapters on 

 electricity and astronomy. In 1836 he was 

 named a member of the Senate of the Univer- 

 sity of London, and soon afterward a Fellow 

 of the Royal Society, and still later a Fellow 



