REPORT OF THE SECRETARY, 35 



improved. The reduction of the registers has been continued by 

 Prof. Coffin during the past year. He has completed those for 1854 

 and 1855, and is now engaged on those for 1856. A summary of the 

 more important reductions for 1854 and 1855 was given in the last 

 Eeport of the Patent Office, and hope was entertained that an ar- 

 rangement could be made by which the whole series would be pub- 

 lished at the expense of the general government. But this expectation 

 has not been realized, and the Institution has commenced to stereo- 

 type the work on its own account. Copies of the stereotype impres- 

 sions will be forwarded, from time to time, to observers, as they 

 become ready for distribution. 



During the past year many additions have been made to the 

 number of observers, and increased interest has been awakened in the 

 subject of meteorology. Quite a number of observers have furnished 

 themselves with full sets of standard instruments, and the system has 

 thus been increased in precision as well as magnitude. It is to be 

 regretted, however, that the observers are not more uniformly distri- 

 buted over the whole country ; while the northern and eastern States 

 are abundantly supplied the southern and western are deficient, 

 particularly Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas, 

 Louisiana, and Texas. 



Several of the observers publish the results of their observations in 

 the newspapers of their vicinity, and we would commend this custom 

 to general adoption. It serves to direct attention to the impoitance 

 of precise records of the weather, to awaken a greater public interest 

 in the subject of meteorology, and to gratify a laudable curiosity in the 

 comparison of the variations of the different seasons. We would also 

 recommend to the observers generally the plan adopted by some of 

 them, of the construction of diagrams, exhibiting to the eye, at a 

 single glanee, the peculiarities of temperature, moisture, and direc- 

 tion of the wind, for different seasons and years. 



All the materials possessed by the. Institution relative to the direc- 

 tion and force of the wind, derived either from its. own system or 

 found in works received by exchange, have been placed in the hands 

 of Prof. Coffin, to enable him to prepare a supplement to his valuable 

 memoir on the " Winds of the Northern Hemisphere." This work 

 requires a large amount of laborious arithmetical calculation, to defray 

 the expense of a part of which a small sum has been granted from 

 the appropriation for meteorology. The fact was also mentioned 

 in the last report, that a valuable series of observations made in Texas 

 and Mexico, by the late Dr. Berlandier, was placed at our disposition 



