34 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



establishment, during' the last year, by Congress, of a system of practical 

 weather reports under the direction of the War Department, with ample 

 means for the purchase standard instruments, the pay of assistants, and 

 telegraphic dispatches. The results of this system in the way of pre- 

 diction have been eminently successful, and have everywhere met with 

 popular favor. The organization and administration of the system by 

 General Myer, the director, has evinced great executive ability, and 

 his wisdom has been shown in selecting Professor Abbe as his scientific 

 assistant. It should be recollected, however, that the principles em- 

 ployed in foretelling the weather are practical results previously arrived 

 at by the investigations of men of abstract science founded on simulta- 

 neous records without the aid of telegraphic communication. For the 

 discovery of the general laws of meteorological phenomena, simultaneous 

 observations should be made over large portions of the earth, and the 

 records of these collected at stated periods, say at the end of every 

 month, at some central office, and submitted first to preliminary reduc- 

 tion, and finally to the critical study of men like Espy, Eedfield, and 

 others, fitted by education, experience, and mental peculiarities to 

 deduce from them the required generalizations. I would therefore sug- 

 gest that a still larger appropriation be made by Congress to the War 

 Department for establishing, besides the reports for weather signals, a 

 series of intermediate stations^ also furnished with compared instru- 

 ments, to record daily observations to be transmitted to Washington 

 weekly or monthly, and also that provision be made for the support of 

 a number of competent persons to carry on the reductions and prepare 

 the results for publication. 



It has been the policy of this Institution from the first to do nothing 

 which can be done as well or better by other means, and in accordance 

 with this policy the Institution would willingly relinquish the field of 

 meteorology, which it has so long endeavored, though imperfectly, to 

 cultivate, turning over to the Signal Office all the material which it has 

 accumulated up to a given epoch. We would advise also a similar 

 course to be pursued on the part of the Medical Department of the 

 Army. All the deductions from the combined materials which have 

 been collected up to the present time should be obtained and published, 

 although since, they may be in many respects defective, they contain 

 the essential element of long periods of meteorological changes and 

 a new era commence with more precise instruments and improved 

 methods of observation. From such a system, however perfect it may 

 be, immediate results are not to be expected. New and important de- 

 ductions can scarcely be obtained until after a continuance of the sys- 

 tem for several years, as, for example, the accurate determination of 

 the periodicity which probably exists in regard to the droughts of the 

 western coast. 



