THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 19 



submitted to them from different parts of the United States ; and they 

 hope to be allowed to extend their inquiries until they also embrace the 

 comparative strength of the most important articles used in the arts. 

 For example, it is of great practical importance to know the relative 

 and absolute strength of cordage, and the various textile fabrics manu- 

 factured by different processes from the raw materials produced in dif- 

 ferent countries. No complete series of experiments has ever been 

 made upon the strength of the varieties of American timber. Enqui- 

 ries, however, of this kind involve much labor and considerable expense, 

 and can only be properly carried on by the aid of the government 



(5.) Meteorology. — During the past year valuable additions have con- 

 tinued to be made to our meteorological collections. Though changes 

 have taken place in the individuals, the number of the observers report- 

 ing immediately to the Institution is about the same as that given in the 

 last report. A considerable number of full sets of standard instruments, 

 made under our direction by Mr. James Green, of New York city,* have 

 been procured by observers, and the character of the meteorological 

 returns has consequently continued gradually to improve in complete- 

 ness and precision. The records we have collected now form a copious 

 store of valuable materials for the solution of many interesting problems 

 relative to the meteorology of this country, which have been resorted 

 to by several original investigators for data necessary to their researches. 

 But to render these materials more generally available for the advance- 

 ment of science, it is desirable to reduce them to tabular forms, and to 

 publish them in as much detail as our funds will allow. In this way 

 the greatest number of persons will have an opportunity of submitting 

 them to the inductive process, by which general laws are deduced from 

 particular facts. There is no part of physical science in which so 

 much is to be done, even in the way of partial generalization, as in 

 meteorology; and hence the importance of engaging as many minds as 

 possible in its investigation. 



It is the policy of the Institution to furnish all the means in its pos- 

 session to aid scientific research, and not to hoard up its treasures or 

 confine their use to those who may be immediately connected with the 

 establishment, or who may be supported by its funds. Co-operation, 

 and not monopoly, is the motto which indicates the spirit of the Smith- 

 sonian operations. It is with this view that I have been anxious to have 

 the materials in our possession reduced to a form for publication ; and, 

 indeed, it has been a source of much solicitude that we have not been 

 able before this time to present to the observers the means by which 

 they could compare the results of their records with those of others in 

 different districts. Few persons, however, are aware of the labor, 

 chiefly of a mechanical character, required to tabulate materials of this 

 kind, and the cost of printing them in sufficient fullness of detail to ren- 

 der them generally applicable to scientific or economical purposes. 

 Besides this, I regret to inform the Board that our attempts in the line 

 of reduction have thus far not been successful. I employed for this 

 purpose a person who seemed to possess all the requisite qualifications, 

 and who engaged in the work with commendable industry and apparent 



* No. 422 Broadway, New York. 



