EEPOKT OF THE SECRETAKY. 45 



as well in Europe as America having required the printing of several 

 successive editions. 



The results of the reductions for five years previous to 1860 have 

 been published in two volumes of nearly 2,000 quarto pages, con- 

 taining a mass of materials of great value in determining the average 

 temperature, fall of rain, barometrical pressure, moisture, direction 

 of the wind, and time of various periodical phenomena relative to 

 plants, animals, &c. 



In addition to these large and important volumes, other works 

 have been published by the Institution which have had a marked 

 influence on the progress of meteorology. Among these may be 

 mentioned the works of Professor Coffin, on the winds of the northern 

 hemisphere; of Mr. Chappelsmith, on a tornado in Illinois; of Professor 

 Loomis, on a great storm which pervaded both America and Europe; 

 the reduced observations for twenty-eight years of Professor Caswell, 

 at Providence, Rhode Island; of Dr. Smith, for twenty years in 

 Arkansas; of Dr. Kane and Captain McClintock, in the arctic seas; 

 on the heat and light of the sun at different points, by Mr. Meech; 

 on the secular period of the aurora, by Professor Olmsted; the 

 occurrence of auroras in the arctic regions, by Mr. P. Force, &c. 



Besides these, a series of meteorological essays embodying many of 

 the results obtained from the investigations at the Institution has 

 been prepared by the Secretary, and been published in the agricul- 

 tural reports of the Patent Office. 



Astronomy.— The Institution has advanced the science of astronomy 

 both by its publications and the assistance rendered to observers. 

 To facilitate astronomical observations, it prepared and published for 

 six years an annual list of occultations of the principal stars by the 

 moon, and printed and distributed a series of tables for determining 

 the perturbations of the planetary motions, the object of which de- 

 termination is to facilitate the calculation of the places of the heavenly 

 bodies. These tables have accomplished the desired end, saving to 

 the practical astronomer an immense amount of tedious and monoto- 

 nous labor. 



The name of the Institution has been favorably connected with the 

 history of the interesting discovery of the planet Neptune. From a 

 few of the first observations which had been made on this planet Mr. 

 Sears C. Walker calculated its approximate orbit, and by this means 

 tracing its path through its whole revolution of 166 years he was en- 

 abled to carry it backward until it fell among a cluster of stars, ac- 

 curately mapped by Lalande, towards the close of the last century. 



