Ube City of /IDejico. m 



of Mexico, contains the average annual climatological data of that city 

 from the years 1877 to 1895. 



More detailed data about the climatological conditions of the City 

 of Mexico during the year 1896, prepared also by our Weather Bureau, 

 is appended on page 113. 



Mortality in the City of Mexico. During the year 1896 the total 

 mortality in the City of Mexico, under a recorded population of 330,698, 

 was 15,567, not including 1275 still-births, equivalent to 4.70 percent. 

 The principal diseases which caused that mortality were those affecting 



1 A BRIEF HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE METEOROLOGY IN THE MEXICAN REPUBLIC. 



Priest Jose Antonio Alzate stands in the first place among those who have culti- 

 vated the meteorological science in our country, being he who first devoted himself to 

 its study, and made regular observations during more than eight years, as he himself 

 says in his De scripdon topogrdfica de Mexico (1738 to 1799). Of these observations, he, 

 unfortunately, only published those belonging to the last nine months of the year 1769, 

 in his famous Gaceta de Literatura de Mexico, 1788 to 1795. He also published many 

 articles describing some phenomena and instruments, climates of towns, value and 

 usefulness of observations, as he had done in others of his publications : Diario Liter- 

 ario de Mexico, 1768 ; Asuntos varios sobre Ciencias y Artes, 1772 to 1773 ; and Ob- 

 servadones sobre la Fisica Historia Natural y Artes litiles^ 1787. He was the first in 

 determining the height of the City of Mexico. 



After these labors of Father Alzate, we find in the journal El Sol regular series 

 of observations published, daily, from the I4th of June, 1824, to the I4th of January, 

 1828. Dr. John Burkart in 1826 ; Sr. Francisco Gerolt from 1833 to 1834, at the 

 School of Mines ; Sr. Jose Gomez de la Cortina, Conde de la Cortina, from 1841 to 

 1845 ; the members of the Geographical Section of the Army Staff from 1842 to 1843 

 the Astronomer Sr. Francisco Jimenez in 1858 ; the School of Mines in the years 

 1850, 1856, 1857, and 1858; Sr. Ignacio Cornejo, M.E., at the same school from 

 1865 to 1866 ; and Sr. Juan de Mier y Teran at the " Escuela Preparatoria " from 

 1868 to 1875, respectively, made some meteorological observations. 



A series of observations from 1855 to 1875 were made at the Hacienda de San 

 Nicolas Buenavista, and another one at the city of Cordoba from 1859 to J 863, by 

 Dr. Jose Apolinario Nieto ; Sr. Carlos Sartorius at the Hacienda del Mirador (State 

 of Veracruz) ; Sr. Miguel Velazquez de Leon, and his sons, Joaquin and Luis, engi- 

 neers, from 1869 up to the present, at the Hacienda del Pabellon ; Sr. Gregorio Bar- 

 reto from 1869 to 1880, at the city of Colima; General Mariano Reyes, Sr. Jose 

 Maria Romero, engineer, and Sr. Pascual Alcocer, from 1870 to the present date, at 

 the city of Queretaro ; Sr. Lazaro Perez from 1874 to 1885, at the city of Guadalajara ; 

 Sr. Isidore Epstein at the City of Monterrey, 1855 ; Sr. Vicente Reyes, a civil engi- 

 neer and architect, at the city of Cuernavaca, 1873, 1874, and 1876 ; Sr. Joaquin de 

 Mendizabal Tamborrel, an engineer, at the city of Puebla, 1872 to 1873 ; Sr. Augustin 

 Galindo at the same city, 1875 ; Professor Manuel M. Chazaro at San Juan Michapa 

 (State of Veracruz), 1872 to 1873 ; Priest Pedro Spina, S. J., at the city of Puebla, 

 1876, and perhaps many others from whom we have no notice, have devoted them- 

 selves to making meteorological observations. 



The " Sociedad de Geografia y Estadistica " the most ancient scientific society in 

 Mexico, distributed, in 1862, some instruments and instructions to observers. 



Finally, on the 6th of March, 1877, being President of the Republic, General 



