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PIONEERS OF SCIENCE IN AMERICA. 



the relation of the prevalent winds to the rise and fall of the 

 barometer, particularly showing that " the line of the wind's 

 approach makes an angle of about sixty-five degrees with the 

 line drawn to the point of maximum pressure." It is this prin- 

 ciple that was afterward so emphasized by the director of the 

 Royal Observatory of Holland, that it has since been desig- 

 nated by his name rather than that of Prof. Coffin and 

 is referred to in Europe as "Buys-Ballot's law of the winds." 

 The results of the investigations of Prof. Coffin have been 

 referred to in all the treatises on meteorology which have ap- 

 peared since their publication, and they have been employed 

 with other materials as the basis of the wind-charts of the At- 

 lantic and Pacific Oceans, prepared and published by the Eng- 

 lish Board of Trade. 



In attentively studying the result of Prof. Coffin's labours, 

 we can not but be struck with his conscientious regard for ac- 

 curacy, and his devotion to truth. In all cases in which the 

 results do not conform to the theory which explains the general 

 phenomena, the discrepancies are fully pointed out; and, where 

 he is unable to suggest an hypothetical cause of the anomaly, 

 he candidly acknowledges his ignorance. In this respect he is 

 an admirable model for an investigator, since errors in science 

 as frequently occur from defects of the heart as from those of 

 the head. 



After the publication of the work on the winds, he continued 

 to collect materials, at first with a view to an appendix, and 

 finally extended his investigations to the winds of the entire 

 globe. To aid in this enterprise, the Smithsonian Institution 

 placed in his hands all the observations on the winds, which it 

 had obtained from its numerous observers during the twenty 

 years since the system was commenced, together with the ob- 

 servations made by the officers of the army, as well as the ex- 

 tensive series of materials in the various series of transactions 

 of scientific societies of the Old World, obtained through the 

 exchanges of the institution. Unfortunately, however, he was 

 not spared to complete this work, although he left it in such a 

 condition that it was readily pushed to completion within three 

 years after his decease. The tables of The Winds of the 

 Globe, were completed and the charts for it were drawn by 

 his son. A discussion and analysis of the tables and charts was 

 supplied by Prof. Coffin's long-time correspondent, Dr. Alex- 



