12 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. L. No. 1279 



Apthorp Gould, who founded the Astronomical 

 Observatory at Cordoba, and, in 1872, estab- 

 lished the Argentine Meteorological Service, 

 which was installed in the Astronomical Ob- 

 servatory, the two organizations being inde- 

 pendent of one another, although imder the 

 same director. Dr. Gould continued in charge 

 of this service until towards the end of 1884, 

 when he left Argentina, and in 1885, Mr. 

 Davis succeeded him as director, continuing 

 in that position until his retirement iu May, 

 1915, after thirty years of active work. Under 

 Mr. Davis's able leadership, the Argentine 

 Meteorological Service attained a position in 

 the very front rank of government meteorolog- 

 ical organizations. When he resigned his post, 

 to secure well-deserved rest and to seek to re- 

 gain his health in his own country, the Argen- 

 tine service extended over an area of nearly 

 3,000 miles in a north- and south-line, its 

 southernmost station being in the South Ork- 

 ney Islands, in latitude 60° 43' south. Over 

 2,000 stations were then cooperating in the 

 work of taking meteorological and magnetic 

 observations. The morning and evening ob- 

 servations from nearly 200 stations were be- 

 ing used in the construction of the daily 

 weather map, in addition to the daily rainfall 

 records from about 1,350 rainfall stations. 

 The development of meteorological work 

 under Mr. Davis was rapid and many-sided. 

 In 1885, the year in which he became director, 

 the Meteorological Office (Oficitia Meteorolog- 

 ica Argentina) was made a separate organiza- 

 tion, and its headquarters were moved from 

 the Astronomical Observatory to a larger and 

 better building, especially built for the pur- 

 pose, the grounds immediately adjoining. In 

 1901 the central office was moved to Buenos 

 Aires, where the telegraphic and other facili- 

 ties for the preparation of a daily weather 

 map, publication of which was begnn on Feb- 

 ruary 21,1902, were much greater than at Cor- 

 doba. A hydrometric section was established 

 in 1902; a magnetic section and a forecasting 

 service in 1904; a rainfall service in 1912, and 

 a system of weekly, or longer forecasts in 

 1915. The section of climatic statistics has 

 continued to have its headquarters at Cordoba, 

 where it collects and compiles climatological 



data, maintains a first-class observatory, and 

 is carrying on researches in agricultural 

 meteorology. 



Mr. Davis was a tremendously keen, active 

 and progressive director. He was not only an 

 unusually efficient executive officer, but he was 

 also a man of wide learning and of a great 

 variety of interests. Both as director, and as 

 a man, he had the respect and loyal devotion 

 of all his associates and employees. He was 

 always well abreast of the times, and often 

 was a pioneer in keeping ahead of the times. 

 IJ^ot content with covering the mainland of 

 his great district with meteorological stations, 

 he extended his service into the Antarctic 

 province to the south. An illustration of his 

 desire to have the organization under his con- 

 trol contribute in every possible way to the 

 advancement of meteorological knowledge was 

 his acquirement, in 1904, of the meteorological 

 and magnetic station at Laurie Island, in the 

 South Orkneys, which had originally been 

 established by the Scottish Antarctic Expedi- 

 tion. Since 1904, this remote southern sta- 

 tion has been operated, without a break in its 

 records, as a part of the Argentine Meteor- 

 ological Service. The personnel of this lonely 

 outpost is relieved only once each year, when 

 supplies are sent for the coming twelve 

 months. The men are then completely isolated, 

 without (at last accounts) any mail or cable 

 communication, until the relief vessel returns 

 the following year. Under these conditions 

 of extreme loneliness and hardship, the ob- 

 servers at Laurie Island have maintained their 

 observations for fifteen years. This is a re- 

 markable record of scientific work of the 

 greatest importance in the study of world 

 meteorology. In his Laurie Island station 

 Mr. Davis always took great pride, and well 

 he might do so. 



Fully alive to all the needs of his service, 

 Mr. Davis called to help him in his scientific 

 work the best meteorologists whom he could 

 find. From this country, he secured Professor 

 F. H. Bigelow, formerly of the "Weather Bu- 

 reau, who has had charge of the magnetic 

 work in Argentina since September, 1915; 

 Mr. H. H. Clayton, formerly of Blue Hill 

 Observatory, and since 1913 chief of the De- 



