42 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 



to institutions of lesser grade not entitled, under the above rules, to 

 the full series, and also to the meteorological correspondents of the 

 Institution. 



The reports are of a more popular character, and are presented — 



1. To all the meteorological observers and other collaborators of the 

 Institution. 



2. To donors to its library or museum. 



3. To colleges and other educational establishments. 



4. To public libraries and literar} 7 and scientific societies. 



5. To teachers or individuals who are engaged in special studies, 

 and who make direct application for them. 



Besides the works which have been published entirely at the ex- 

 pense of the Institution, aid has been furnished by subscription for 

 copies to be distributed to foreign libraries of a number of works 

 which fall within the class adopted by the programme. The princi- 

 pal works of this kind for which subscriptions have been made are as 

 follows : Agassiz's Contributions to Natural History, Gould's Astro- 

 nomical Journal, Shea's American Linguistics, Runkle's Mathematical 

 Monthly, Deane's Fossil Footprints, Tuomey & Holmes's Fossils of 

 South Carolina, Peirce's Analytic Mechanics. 



Meteorology. — The investigation of all questions relative to meteor- 

 ology has been an object to which the Institution has devoted special at- 

 tention, and one of its first efforts was to organize a voluntary system of 

 observation, which should extend as widely as possible over the whole 

 of the North American continent. It induced a skilful ■artisan, under 

 its direction, to commence the manufacture of carefully prepared and 

 accurately graduated instruments, now generally known as the Smith- 

 sonian standards. It prepared and furnished a series of instructions 

 for the use of the instruments and the observations of meteorological 

 phenomena ; also three series of blank forms as registers. 



It next organized a body of intelligent observers, and in a compar- 

 atively short time brought the system into practical operation ; each 

 year the number of observers increased, and where one ceased his 

 connexion with the enterprise, several came forward to supply his 

 place. By an arrangement with the Surgeon General of the army, 

 the system of observations at the United States military posts in dif- 

 ferent parts of the country, and also that which had previously been 

 established by the State of New York, were remodelled so as to har- 

 monize with that of the Institution. Gentlemen interested in science, 

 residing in the British provinces, and at nearly all the posts of the Hud- 

 son's Bay Company, also in Mexico, Central America, the West In- 



