64 Notices respecting New Books. 



stations in the Bombay Presidency was made in 1851 — two years 

 before the Brussels Conference, the outcome of which, among other 

 results, was the establishment of our own Meteorological Office 

 under the direction of the late Admiral EitzRoy, and about four 

 years after the general idea of systematic meteorological observa- 

 tion, especially by officers in the army, navy, and mercantile marine, 

 was suggested in this country. The observations in the Bombay 

 Presidency were made in pursuance of orders received from the 

 Honourable Court of Directors ; but at most of the stations they were 

 soon discontinued altogether, whilst at others they were continued 

 in a very inefficient and negligent manner. Towards the end of 

 1852 the receipt of five complete sets of verified instruments from 

 England revived in a measure the work of observation in India. 

 Orders were given to erect them at Belgaum, Poona, Bombay, 

 Deesa, and Kurrachee, and place them in charge of the Superin- 

 tendent of the Government Observatory at Bombay, and the senior 

 Medical Officers at the other stations, with this comment : — " "We 

 would hope that, from the zeal and energy of Medical Officers in 

 charge of European hospitals and their love of science, the observa- 

 tions may be made by themselves and their establishments, without 

 entailing on the public any expense on this account." The zeal and 

 energy of the medical officers and their love of science, however, 

 seem not to have been equal to the occasion ; for after vainly en- 

 deavouring until the end of 1855 to carry out the orders they had 

 received without entailing expense on the public, it was arranged 

 at the direction of the Honourable Board that two European "soldiers 

 should be told off at each station to undertake the duty of making 

 meteorological observations, on an allowance of 25 rupees per month 

 for each observatory. The soldiers were sent to the Bombay Ob- 

 servatory early in 1856 for a preparatory course of training, on the 

 successful completion of which they were furnished with certificates 

 of competency for performing the work. Soon after this time the 

 real work of meteorological registration may be said to have com- 

 menced so far as the observers were concerned; for the work from 

 this time appears to have been carried on generally in a thorough 

 and trustworthy manner. 



Turning to the administrative report, the first portion of which 

 has reference to the machinery of the Meteorological Departments 

 previous to the establishment of the Meteorological Department by 

 the Government and the reorganization of the observations, we find 

 there were eighty-four observatories in India and its Dependencies. 

 In the scheme of reorganization, one of the most important points 

 was a redistribution of the observatories, in effecting which it was 

 proposed to group low-lying and elevated observatories in pairs, in 

 order to throw light on the variations of the atmosphere in a vertical 

 direction. The result of the reorganization has been the establish- 

 ment of 95 observatories, viz. 3 first class, 21 second class, 71 third 

 class, which, with 9 independent observatories furnishing data, 

 make a total of 104 meteorological observatories actively at work in 

 India. 



