290 NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



COMMITTEE ON QUESTIONS OF METEOROLOGICAL 

 SCIENCE AND ITS APPLICATIONS. 1881 



This committee was appointed in 1881 at the request of the 

 Chief Signal Officer of the Army. The Proceedings of the 

 Academy contain the following information regarding it: 



" A communication was laid before the Academy from General William B. 

 Hazen, Chief Signal Officer, United States Army, under date of April 4, 188 1, 

 asking that a permanent committee be appointed with whom the Signal Officer 

 might confer from time to time as to the best means of advancing the science of 

 meteorology and its applications to the benefit of agriculture and commerce. 



" The following-named members were thereupon appointed by the President a 

 Committee on Meteorology to confer and co-operate with the Chief Signal Officer : 

 Mr. Newcomb, chairman, and Messrs. Loomis, Gibbs (W.), Newton (H. A.), 

 Ferrel, Schott, and Langley. 



" Messrs. Rood and Young were subsequently added to the Committee." ^^° 



In his report for 1881, General Hazen comments on the 

 appointment of the committee in the following terms: 



" The weather service of the United States has been without a rival in the 

 practical advantages derived from its labors, but the day has now come when it 

 should take the stand among the foremost, in the scientific study and investigation 

 of the higher branches of theoretical meteorology, and it is upon such investiga- 

 tions intelligently pursued that the hope for greater benefits must mainly rest. 

 I have endeavored to bring this service into active sympathy and co-operation with 

 the ablest scientific intellects of the country. In this direction and in response 

 to my request, the National Academy of Sciences has appointed an advisory com- 

 mittee of consulting specialists with which I may confer as occasion demands. I 

 take pleasure in acknowledging this courtesy as showing the establishment of more 

 intimate relations between the scientific interests of the United States and the 

 Signal Service." ^"^ 



The committee appears not to have presented any formal re- 

 ports but was continued until 1884, when it was discharged. At 

 this time the Academy had been requested by a Joint Commis- 

 sion of Congress to express its opinion as to the meteorological 

 work carried on under the Signal Service. 



"°Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., vol. i, pp. i8i, 182. 



"'Rep. Chief Signal Officer of tlie Army, p. 3 (1881) (Wm. B. Hazen). 



