118 
said, ‘‘ It is a complete mass of meteorological 
and magnetical observations published in de- 
tail, and therefore easily accessible to every one, 
and such as no other land possesses: it is of 
great value to the science; but it would have 
been much more valuable, yes, invaluable, if it 
was as satisfactory as comprehensive.’’ 
As at first organized, there were few under- 
officials in the observatory ; and most of them 
were men who received small salaries, and were 
not especially qualified for their positions, — 
or, rather, there were no positions for men 
qualified, —so that the director was obliged 
to attend personally to all work requiring much 
thought. A force, then, of a director and five 
not specially prepared men was to conduct 
the work of the central office, from which were 
to be issued the meteorological observations, 
and their discussion, of a country five times as 
large as all the rest of Europe, through which 
about twenty separate meteorological institutes 
are distributed. 
It is not to be wondered at, then, that Rus- 
sian observations lay for so many years almost 
unused by their meteorologists. Any one who 
has attempted to work with magnetic obser- 
vations knows that little can be done single- 
handed, especially if the person must also busy 
himself with the instruments themselves. 
Through inability on the part of the director 
to cope thus single-handed with the great work 
undertaken, the meteorological service went 
gradually into decline. The separate stations 
could not be properly inspected to see that the 
instruments were correct, nor could the neces- 
sary attention be given to the preparation of 
the observations for publication. Matters 
finally came to such a pass, that about 1864 a 
re-organization of the service was agreed upon, 
and the establishment of forty new meteor- 
ological stations. However, the next year, and 
before any thing could be done, Kupffer died, 
and Kaemtz was called to succeed him. 
This great meteorologist at once elaborated 
plans for the improvement and enlargement of 
the service; but a great undertaking of this 
kind goes forward slowly, and at his death, two 
years later, not much had been carried practi- 
cally into effect. 
The service, then, was in a disorganized 
condition when Wild took charge in 1868. 
Although it is probable that a great improve- 
ment would have taken place had Kaemtz 
lived, yet we can hardly hope that he would 
have placed the service in that high position 
which it now holds in reference to others, and 
which it assumed so shortly after the choosing 
of Wild as director. 
SCIENCE. 
mes | h: on ws ae Mh) dala 
Professor Wild doubled the corps of assist- 
ants, and made the positions so desirable and 
important that university men were glad to 
accept them, and good men from other con- 
tinental countries were easily persuaded to 
accept places. These men were of such ability 
that they could undertake and successfully 
carry out, under the supervision of the director, 
any single investigations, and thus relieve the 
chief of that care and constant watchfulness 
which would have been necessary had he had 
less skilful assistants. The results of these 
labors can be seen in the papers published in 
the Repertorium fiir meteorologie. 
But it is mainly of the Russian service as it 
at present exists, and especially of the meteor- 
ological observatory, that I wish to speak. 
The whole establishment is composed of 
several observing-stations of the first order 
(i.e., where either hourly observations are 
made, or where self-registering barometers, 
etc., are employed), and about a hundred and 
thirty stations of the second and third orders, 
where observations are made at stated times 
during the day. In order to obtain an idea of 
the distribution of these stations, the reader 
must consult the chart accompanying the Tem- 
peratur-verhilinisse des russischen reiches, pub- 
lished in 1881 by the observatory. 
The meteorological observatory at St. Peters- 
burg consists of two parts, —the Central physi- 
cal observatory, in the city itself; and the 
observatory at Pawlowsk, in the country, about 
thirty kilometres distant. The present build- 
ing occupied by the former was built about 
1860, and continued to be the principal observ- 
ing-station until 1877, when the other was 
grounded. 
The building in St. Petersburg occupies a 
not prominent position at a little distance from 
the north bank of the Neva, in the western end 
of the city; but it has no longer the quiet sur- 
roundings that it probably had at the time of 
its construction, as the city is extending in that 
direction. 
All of the work of standards, instrument- 
comparing, preparing matter for the printer, 
correspondence, supplying stations with neces- 
sities, and the general management of the whole 
service, is carried on here, and for eight or nine 
months of the year it is the dwelling-place of 
the director. 
For the non-meteorologist, however, the only 
attractive feature of the institution is the large 
instrument saloon, where there is much fine 
apparatus, especially standards. The library 
is a very good one, and the numerous books in © 
foreign languages show the extent to which the 
[Vou. IIL, No. 62. — 
