234 
creased expense. * * * Taking into considera- 
tion the striking uniformity of conditions which 
prevail in different years in this region, it is 
probable that additional observations would 
not greatly increase our knowledge. It has 
been decided, therefore, to suspend, at the end 
of the year 1900, the meteorological observa- 
tions of all the stations, except those at 
Arequipa.”’ 
RECENT PUBLICATIONS. 
C. F. Marvin: Anemometry. U.S. Depart- 
ment of Agriculture, Weather Bureau.  Cir- 
cular D, Instrument Division. 2d Edition. 
Washington, D. C. 1900. 8vo. Pp. 67. 
This is a circular of general information re- 
specting the theory and operation of instruments 
for indicating, measuring and automatically re- 
cording wind movement and direction, with 
instructions for the erection and care of such 
instruments of the Weather Bureau pattern. 
C. F. Marvin: Psychrometric Tables for Obtain- 
ing the Vapor Pressure, Relative Humidity and 
Temperature of the Dew- Point. U.S. Depart- 
ment of Agriculture, Weather Bureau. Wash- 
ington, D. C. 8vo. 1900. Pp. 84. Price, 
10 cents. 
These are the tables for the reduction of 
the psychrometric observations at the regular 
and volunteer stations of the Weather Bureau. 
The use of these tables began Jan. 1, 1901. 
NOTES. 
~ Dr. H. R. MI has become the Editor of Sy- 
mons’s Monthly Meteorological Magazine, in place 
of Mr. H. Sowerby Wallis, who has held that 
position since the death of Mr. G. J. Symons. 
ACCORDING to Professor A. J. Henry (Monthly 
Weather Review, Oct. 1900), a conservative es- 
timate of the total loss of property by lightning 
in the United States during the year 1899 would 
probably be $6,000,000. 
, R. DEC. WARD. 
THE NAVAL OBSERVATORY IN CONGRESS. 
THE Observatory was discussed in the Senate 
on January 22d in view ofan item in the naval 
appropriation bill. Mr. Morgan said: 
I want to call the attention of the Senate to the 
fact that this great Observatory is without any real 
organization in law, and it is a haphazard, piecemeal 
SCIENCE. 
[N.S. Von. XIII. No. 319. 
sort of arrangement by which it has been put under 
the Navy Department. It was first called the Na- 
tional Observatory of the United States. It was 
afterwards called the Naval Observatory of the United 
States, and was put under the Navy Department. 
No head or management of the Observatory, as I un- 
derstand it, has ever been appointed or given the di- 
rection of it, but an officer of the Navy is detailed to 
take charge of the Observatory from time to time, who 
controls this matter. However, it is not a military 
office in any sense of the word, and it does not follow 
that aman educated at Annapolis has any very special 
training in astronomy. It seems to me that that 
great institution is very badly crippled for want of a 
proper organization. 
We have here, upon the recommendation of what is. 
called the chief astronomer, a provision by which an 
assistant spectroscopist is to be appointed, and yet 
they have made no reports recently of any work of 
that kind in the Observatory. I suppose there must 
be work of that kind going on, but the reports ought 
to show it if they are of any value at all 
Now, this great Observatory, perhaps the largest 
national observatory in the world—I think it is the 
largest one in the world—not larger, perhaps, though 
more costly, than some of the private observatories— 
has cost the Government of the United States for the 
site, buildings, grounds, and outfit $655,845, and the 
roads, pathways, and gradings, $95,900, making a 
total cost of $751,745. 
As I understand it, the Observatory does not have 
the rank amongst the observatories of the United 
States that it ought to have. There is very valuable 
work done there, a great deal of it, no doubt, but 
simply for the want of proper organization the work 
has not been conducted in the way it ought to be. I 
have introduced a bill in the Senate to organize the 
Observatory, for it has never had any organization. 
I wanted to call the attention of the chairman of 
the committee to this particular appropriation, with 
a view of drawing out some expression from him, or 
from some one who is informed particularly on the 
subject, about certain points. Congress, it seems, has 
neither defined the objects for which the Observatory 
was founded, made any provision for its control, or 
appointed any authority to determine what it should 
do or to report upon its work, nor assigned to it any 
public function. What the Navy Department has 
been able to do is to provide for its government as a 
nayal station, appoint an officer to command it. detail 
professors in the Navy for duty, give to the senior of 
these professors the title of astronomical director, and 
charge him with the duty of determining what astro- 
nomical work shall be done. But, as far as known, 
it has never been able to provide the head of the es- 
