576 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol; II. No. 44. 



earth was quite different from that which 

 obtains at present. 



Baron d'Hamonville next made an elo- 

 quent plea for protection to the birds of 

 paradise and appealed to the ladies for sup- 

 port in this movement. 



Dr. Herbert H. Field (Brooklyn) trans- 

 mitted to tlie Congress a proposition of Prof. 

 E. L. Mark, Cambridge, U. S. A., to " con- 

 sider the desirabilitj'^ and feasibility of con- 

 structing a code of abbreviations in animal 

 morphology based upon Latin names and 

 to be recommended for general use by zoolo- 

 gists and anatomists throughout the world." 



The Congress voted iinanimously that Sir 

 William Flower should be the president of 

 the fourth Congress, and that this shoiild 

 be held in England, the president-elect to 

 agree with his English colleagues upon the 

 place of meeting. 



After speeches from MM. Milne-Edwards, 

 Studer, Selys-Longchamps and Flower, ex- 

 pressing the high appreciation felt by all the 

 members for the admirably successful labors 

 of the Dutch committees and the remark- 

 able character of the work laid before the 

 Congress, the president declared the ses- 

 sions of the Third International Zoological 

 Congress to be closed. 



RELATIONS OF THE WEATHER BUREAU TO 



THE SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY OF 



THE COUNTRY. 



Mr. President and members of the 

 American Association for the Advancement 

 of Science : 



It is a matter of much pleasure to me 

 that I an"! allowed the privilege of speaking 

 at a joint session of this Association — repre- 

 senting as it does within the confines of 

 its admirable organization the scientific 

 thought of our countr}'. This is the Mecca 

 towards which annually journey all those 

 who wish, each to contribute his mite to the 

 sum of human knowledge; each inspired 

 with an ambition to add even one flickering 



ray to the great luminous orb which to-day 

 is shedding the benign light of wisdom even 

 unto the uttermost recesses of the earth ; 

 subduing the barbarous instincts of man 

 and warming and invigorating into life the 

 better impulses of his nature. Thus is civ- 

 ilization advanced, and thus is humanity 

 elevated to higher and higher planes of ex- 

 istence. 



I hope to be a worker in the ranks of this 

 great armj% and as the science of meteor- 

 ology can hardly be said to have passed be- 

 yond the embryonic state, I feel that the 

 realms of investigation are boundless, and 

 that the opportunities are correspondingly 

 great. 



As the Chief of the greatest meteorological 

 system in the world, and with the power to 

 control, under the direction of the Honor- 

 able Secretary of Agriculture, not only its 

 executive functions, but the lines of future 

 scientific investigation, I fully realize the 

 great responsibility that rests upon me, and 

 that, at the bar of public and scientific 

 opinion, I shall, in the years to come, justly 

 be held to a strict accountability for my 

 stewardship. 



Before considering the lines of investiga- 

 tion which can consistently be prosecuted 

 by the Weather Bureau, it will be well to 

 note the law which prescribes the duties of 

 the chief. 



By an Act Congress approved October 1, 

 1890, Sec. 3, Statutes at large. Fifty-first 

 Congi'ess, p. 653, it is provided: 



'•That the Chief of the Weather Bureau, 

 under the direction of the Secretary of 

 Agriculture, on and after July 1, 1891, 

 sliall have charge of the forecasting of 

 weather, the issue of storm warnings, the 

 display of weather and flood signals for the 

 benefit of agriculture, commerce and navi- 

 gation, the gauging and reporting of rivers, 

 the maintenance and operation of sea-coast 

 telegraph lines and the collection and trans- 

 mission of marine intelligence for the bene- 

 fit of commei'ce and navigation, the report- 

 ing of temperature and rainfall conditions 



