240 REVIEWS REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF PATENTS. 



The Report contains a long and very able article (one of a series) on 

 Meteorology in its connection with Agriculture, by Professor Henry, 

 Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, illustrated by a chart of 

 Isothermal lines in North America, as determined by the joint labors 

 of many observers throughout the continent. The mode hitherto 

 adopted of collecting Meteorological facts by a staflP of experienced 

 observers scattered through the country, and of making such deduc- 

 tions therefrom as pertain to agriculture, has been attended with in- 

 creasing confidence in its eventual utility. Already these exertions 

 have thrown much interesting light on the climatology of this conti- 

 nent, and enabled us to comprehend, in some degree, phenomena that 

 were previously regarded as anomalous. By presenting some of the 

 physical laws on which meteorology depends, the general principles at 

 which it has arrived, and their application to the peculiarities of the 

 climate of the United States, it is hoped to awaken a more lively and 

 general interest in the subject. The system about being introduced 

 in Upper Canada, of furnishing the principal grammar schools with 

 correct instruments for ascertaining the more interesting and important 

 meteorological phenomena, and carefully registering the same, will, no 

 doubt, constitute a useful auxiliary to similar agencies in the neigh- 

 bouring republic, and be productive of valuable results. 



It appears that the chemical analysis of soils, products, manures, 

 &c. ; with entomological researches, and botanical investigations, re- 

 commended in the previous report of 1855, have not been carried into 

 effect. These investigations, however, have not been wholly lost sight 

 of. Individuals and scientific societies have to some extent commenced 

 them, and in a few instances carried them to a successful issue. That 

 chemistry is destined to achieve similar triumphs in the wide and 

 interesting field of agricultural research, to those it has already won in 

 physiology and the arts, few can reasonably doubt; and the future 

 progress of this all important pursuit will in no small degree depend 

 upon chemical discovery, with its varied applications. Hitherto there 

 has been much both of dogged scepticism and unreasonable expecta- 

 tion in relation to these matters ; some obstinately affirming that 

 science is incapable of affording any aid to the practical farmer, while 

 others as vehemently maintain that chemistry alone is already capable 

 of. pouring a flood of light on the most hidden processes of his art. 

 Chemical analysis, as commonly conducted, has certainly not realised 

 the sanguine expectations expressed not many years since, when Baron 

 Liebig presented his celebrated report to the British Association for the 

 Advancement of Science. It should be borne in mind, however, that 



