648 The Smithsonian Institution 



and again in i758-'59 and in i76i-'77. His manuscript is 

 preserve'd by the American Philosophical Society in Philadel- 

 phia. 1 Of conspicuous interest are the series of observations 

 made by Thomas Jefferson in Monticello in i772-'78, and 

 toward the close of this period he instituted, with James 

 Madison, a series of simultaneous observations in Monticello 

 and at William and Mary College, Williamsburg, Virginia. 

 These, it is believed, were the first simultaneous observations 

 made in this country. 2 



In 1 8 14 the Army Medical Department issued a rule, mak- 

 ing it the duty of each hospital surgeon and director of a 

 department "to keep a diary of the weather." 3 The collec- 

 tion of these observations was fostered by Surgeon- General 

 Joseph Lowell, and a systematic gathering of reports of tem- 

 perature, pressure, and moisture of the air, the amount of 

 rain, direction and force of wind, appearance of the sky, and 

 other phenomena ensued, resulting in the publication of three 

 volumes of " Meteorological Registers," the last of which, 

 issued in 1851, covered the period from 1831 to 1842. The 

 active operations of this service continued until the beginning 

 of the Civil War. 



Contemporary with the foregoing was the collection of me- 

 teorological data begun in 1817 by Josiah Meigs, then Com- 

 missioner of the General Land Office. He issued blank forms 

 of a meteorological register to the officials of the various local 

 land offices scattered through the States. This service be- 

 came, in time, the parent of the observations made under the 

 direction of the Patent Office, and continued until 1859.* 



1 Henry, Alfred J., " Early Individual Ob- nient of Meteorology in the United States." 

 servers in the United States." Page 297. Page 208, "Bulletin No. n of the Weather 



2 Harrington, Mark W.," History of the Bureau." Washington, 1895. 



Weather Map," page 327, "Bulletin No. n, 4Goode, G. Brown, " The Origin of the 



of the Weather Bureau. " Washington, 1895. National Scientific and Educational Institu- 



3 Smart, Charles, "The Connection of the tions of the United States." Report of the 



Army Medical Department with the Depart- American Historical Society, 1889, page 138. 



