PROCEEDINGS OF THE OHIO ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 267 



Ferrel and others who contributed greatly to give Meteorology 

 a place among the sciences nor do we overlook the efforts 

 of Lapham and Paine to secure appropriate legislation but 

 it remained for Abbe to give the country a concrete demons- 

 tration of just how a practical meterological Bureau ren- 

 dering a definite daily service to the community could be 

 organized and conducted. He, it seems, realized in fuller 

 degree than any others the beneficient possibilities of the 

 work and saw ways in which the results could be attained. 

 AVe Ohioans may well be proud that the little Cincinnati Ob- 

 servatory was the center of this activity, although Abbe himself 

 by birth and education must be accredited to New York. — Prof. 

 M. W. Harrington, a former chief of the Weather Bureau, has 

 given a succinct account of the steps leading to the establishment 

 of the National service from which I may be permitted to quote 

 as follows : — 



"In the more detailed plan for the future activity of the observa- 

 tory which he outlined in his inaugural report, Professor Abbe gave a 

 prominent place to the" particular subjects, in connection with which he 

 has won fame. It was his desire, primarily, to extend the field of activity 

 so as to embrace, on the one hand, scientific astronomy, meteorology, 

 and magnetism, and, on the other, the application of these sciences to 

 geography and geodesy, to storm predictions, and to the wants of the 

 citizens and the land-surveyor. In meteorology, he remarked, the ob- 

 servatory ought to keep record of regular hourly observations of all 

 phenomena depending upon observations of the atmosphere : 'The sci- 

 ence of meteorology is slowly advancing to that point at which it will 

 begin to yield most valuable results to the general community. Although 

 we can not yet predict the weather for a week in advance, yet we are 

 safe in saying that, with a proper arrangement of outposts, we can 

 generally predict three days in advance any extended storm, and six 

 hours in advance any violent hurricane. This may be effected simply by 

 constituting the observatory a central station, to which telegraphic re- 

 ports of the weather are regularly daily transmitted. The careful study 

 of these dispatches enables the meteorologist safely to make the predic- 

 tions mentioned, which can be at once disseminated through the public 

 papers or otherwise. In France, Italy, and England, and on our own 

 eastern coast, such storm-warnings are considered of very great impor- 

 tance.' The co-operation of the Smithsonian observers and those of the 

 army had already been promised ; and at the end of the year, in consid- 

 eration of the fact that the most of our storms appear on this side of 



