PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OP AVASHINGTON. 297 



nient of observation had been advanced by Henry to that position, 

 ill vvliich a hirger annual outlay than the entire income of the 

 Institution was really required to give just efficiency to the sys- 

 tem. In bis Report for I8(i5, be remarked : " The present would 

 appear to be a favorable time to urge upon Congress the import- 

 ance of making provision for the reorganizing all the meteoro- 

 logical observations of the United States under one combined 

 plan, in which the records should be sent to a central depot for 

 reduction, discussion, and final publication. An appropriation 

 of 50,000 dollars annually for this purpose would tend not only 

 to advance the material interest of the country, but also to in- 

 crease its reputation. . . . It is scarcely necessary at this day 

 to dwell on the advantages which result from such systems of 

 combined observations as those which the principal governments 

 of Europe have established, and are now constantly extending."* 

 P^ive years later, in support of the proposition that the subject 

 from its magnitude now appealed to the liberality of the nation, 

 he briefly recapitulated the work accomplished by the limited 

 means of the Institution. "The Smithsonian meteorological 

 system was commenced in 1849, and has continued in operation 

 until the present time. ... It has done good service to the 

 cause of meteorology ; 1st in inaugurating the system which has 

 been in operation upwards of twenty years : 2nd in the introduc- 

 tion of improved instruments after discussion and experiments : 

 3i'd in preparing and publishing at its expense an extensive series 

 of meteorological tables : 4th in reducing and discussing the 

 meteorological material which could be obtained from all the 

 records from the first settlement of the country till within a few 

 years: 5th in being the first to show the practicability of tele- 

 graphic weather signals : fith in ])ublishing records and discus- 

 sions made at its own expense, of the Arctic expeditions of Kane, 

 Hayes, and McClintock: Tth in discussing and pulilishing a 

 number of series of special records embracing periods of from 

 twenty to fifty years in different sections of the United States, — 

 of great interest in determining secular changes of the climate : 

 8th in the publication of a series of memoirs on various meteoro- 

 logical phenomena, emln-acing observations and discussions of 

 storms, tornadoes, meteors, auroras, etc. : 9th in a diffusion of a 

 knowledge of meteorology throngh its extensive unpul)lished 

 correspondence and its printed circulars. It has done all in this 

 line which its limited means would permit ; and has urged upon 

 Congress the establishment with adequate appropriation of funds, 

 of a meteorological department under one comprehensive plan, 

 ' in which the records should be sent to a central depot for reduc- 

 tion, discussion, and final publication.' "f 



* Smithsonian Report for 1865, p. 57. 

 f Smithsonian Report for 1870, p. 43. 



71 



