Madison's administration, which began in 1809, though friendly to science, was not characterized by any remarkable advances (except that the Coast Survey was actually organized for work under Hassler, after his return from Europe in 1816). The war of 1812 and the unsettled state of public affairs were not propitious to the growth of learned institutions.

Monroe became chief magistrate in 1817. He, like Madison, was a friend and follower of Jefferson, and in the atmosphere of national prosperity scientific work began to prosper, and there was a great accession of popular interest, and State geological surveys began to come into existence. Schoolcraft and Long led government expeditions into the West; the American Geological Society and the American Journal of Science were founded.

The city of Washington began to have intellectual interests, and public-spirited men organized the Columbian Institute and the Columbian University.

Monroe was not actually acquainted with science, but was in hearty sympathy with it. When he visited New York, in 1817, he visited the New York Institution, and was received as an honorary member of the Literary and Philosophical Society, and in his reply to the address of Governor Clinton, its president, he remarked that "the honor, glory, and prosperity of the country were intimately connected with its literature and science, and that the promotion of knowledge would always be an object of his attention and solicitude."

The most important new enterprise was in the direction of organizing a national meteorological service.

The first move was made by Josiah Meigs, who was in 1814 appointed Commissioner of the General Land Office. With the exception of Franklin,' he was perhaps the earliest

1 See Benjamin Franklin's "Meteorological Imaginations and Conjectures," in the Memoirs of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Mansfield. Communications made at Passy (France), in 1784, and reported in the Pennsylvania Packet (in Congressional Library) of July 18, 1786.

scientific meteorologist in America, having, while living in the Bermudas from 1789 to 1794, made a series of observations which he communicated to the Royal Society."

In 1817, or before he began to advocate Congressional action for the establishment of meteorological registers in connection with the Land Office, writing to Dr. Daniel Drake in 1817, he said:

"If my plan be adopted, and the Registers be furnished with the requisite instruments for Temperature, Pressure, Rain, Wind, &c. we may, in the course of a year, know more than we shall be able to know on any other plan." P. 82. "Without some system of this kind our country may be occupied for ages, and we the people of the United States be as ignorant on this subject as the Kickapoos now are, who have occupied it for ages past." P. 83.

In 1817 he also issued a circular to the Registrars of the Land Offices of the several States, calling upon them to take regularly certain observations and make monthly official reports upon all meteorological phenomena.

In 1819 a co-operative movement was begun under the direction of Dr. Joseph Lovell, Surgeon-General of the Army, in connection with the medical officers at the principal military posts, by whom reports were made at the end of each month upon the temperature, pressure, and moisture of the air, the amount of rain, the direction and force of the wind, the appearance of the sky, and other phenomena.

The Land-Office circular was a remarkable one, and led to the extensive system of Patent-Office observations, the results of which, published in connection with those of the War Department and the Smithsonian in 1859, formed the foundation of scientific meteorology in the United States.

In 1839 a most admirable paper by the French geologist, I. N. Nicollet, an "Essay on Meteorological Observations," was published under the direction of the Bureau of Topographical Engineering. Some years later the lake system of meteorological observations was established by the Engineer Department, under the direction of Captain (afterwards

1 "Life of Josiah Meigs," p. 27.

General) George G. Meade. This included a line of stations extending from the western part of Lake Superior to the eastern part of Lake Ontario.

In 1835 a system of observations had been established under the direction of the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York, the points of observation being at the academies of the State, and in 1837 the Legislature of Pennsylvania made an appropriation of $4,000 for instruments for use in meteorological observations, which were continued until about 1847. Those of New York were kept up until 1865 or later.

In the meantime, the idea of the pre-announcement of storms by telegraph was suggested in 1847 by W. C. Redfield, the discoverer of the law of storms, while Lieutenant Maury from 1851 onward, and especially at the International Meteorological Conference (held at his instance in Belgium in 1853) was promoting the establishment of a system of agricultural meteorology for farmers, and of daily weather reports by telegraph.'

In February, 1855, Leverrier obtained the sanction of the Emperor of France for the creation of an extensive organization for the purpose of distributing weather intelligence, though it was not till 1860 that he felt justified in making his work international.' In 1861 and in 1862 a similar organization was begun in England, under Admiral Fitzroy, which was extended a little later to India.

In the meantime all the essential features for the prediction of meteorological phenomena were in existence in the Smithsonian Institution as early as 1856, having grown up as the result of an extensive series of tabulations of observations recorded by volunteer observers in all parts of the country.

The following historical notes on weather telegraphy, published by Professor Cleveland Abbe in 1871,3 give a summary of the progress of this work:

1 44

2 Maury's Life," p. 77.

3

Scott, "Storm Warnings," London, 1883. American Journal of Science, July, 1871.

However frequently the idea may have been suggested of utilizing our knowledge by the employment of the electric telegraph, it is to Professor Henry and his assistants in the Smithsonian Institution that the credit is due of having first actually realized this suggestion.

The practical utilization of the results of scientific study is well known to have been in general greatly furthered by the labors of this noble institution, and from the very beginning Professor Henry has successfully advocated the feasibility of telegraphic storm warnings. The agitation of this subject in the United States during the years 1830-1855 may be safely presumed to have stimulated the subsequent action of the European meteorologists. It will be interesting to trace the gradual realization of the earlier suggestions of Redfield and Loomis in the following extracts from the annual Smithsonian Reports of the respective years:

1847. "The extended lines of telegraph will furnish a ready means of warning the more northern and eastern observers to be on the watch for the first appearance of an advancing storm."

1848. "As a part of the system of meteorology, it is proposed to employ, as far as our funds will permit, the magnetic telegraph in the investigation of atmospherical phenomena. The advantage to agriculture and commerce to be derived from a knowledge of the approach of a storm by means of the telegraph has been frequently referred to of late in the public journals; and this we think is a subject deserving the attention of the Government."

1849. "Successful applications have been made to the presidents of a number of telegraph lines to allow us at a certain period of the day the use of the wires for the transmission of meteorological intelligence. . . . As soon as they [certain instructions, etc.] are completed, the transmission of observations will commence." (It was contemplated to constitute the telegraph operators the observers.)

64

1850. This map [an outline wall-map] is intended to be used for presenting the successive phases of the sky over the whole country at different points of time, as far as reported."

1851. "Since the date of the last report the system particularly intended to investigate the nature of American storms immediataly under the care of the institution, has been continued and improved."

The system of weather reports thus inaugurated continued in regular operation until 1861, when the disturbed condition of the country rendered impossible its further continuance. Meanwhile, however, the study of these daily morning reports had led to such a knowledge of the progress of our storms that in the Report for 1857 Professor Henry writes:

1857. "We are indebted to the National Telegraph Line for a series of observations from New Orleans to New York and as far westward as Cincinnati, which have been published in the Evening Star of this city.

"We hope in the course of another year to make such an arrangement with the telegraph lines as to be able to give warnings on the eastern coast of the approach of storms, since the investigations which have been made at the institution fully indicate the fact that as a general rule the storms of our latitude pursue a definite course."

It would seem, therefore, that nothing but the disturbances of the late war prevented our having had, ten years ago, a valuable system of practical storm warnings. Even before peace had been proclaimed, Professor Henry sought to revive the systematic daily weather reports, and in August, 1864, at the meeting of the North American Telegraph Association (see their published report of proceeding) a paper was presented by Professor Baird, on behalf of the Smithsonian Institution, requesting the privilege of the use of the telegraph lines, and more especially in order to enable Professor Henry "to resume and extend the weather bulletin, and to give warning of important atmospheric changes to our seaboard." In response to this communication it was resolved, "That this association recommend-to pass free of charge-brief meteorological reports for the use and benefit of the institution."

On the communication of this generous response preparations were at once made for the laborious undertaking, and the inauguration of the enterprise was fixed for the year 1865. In January of that year, however, occurred the disastrous fire which so seriously embarrassed the labors of the Smithsonian Institution for several following years. It became necessary to indefinitely postpone this meteorological work, which, indeed, had through its whole history been carried on with most limited financial means, and was quite dependent upon the liberal co-operation of the different telegraph companies.

It will thus be seen that without material aid from the government, but through the enlightened policy of the telegraph companies, and with the assistance of the munificent bequest of James Smithson. "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge," the Smithsonian Institution, first in the world, organized a comprehensive system of telegraphic meteorology, and has thus given, first to Europe and Asia, and now to the United States, the most beneficent national application of modern science, the storm warnings.

In the Report of the Smithsonian Institution for 1858 it is stated:

"An object of much interest at the Smithsonian building is the daily exhibition on a large map of the condition of the weather over a considerable portion of the United States. The reports are received about ten o'clock in the morning, and the changes are made on the map by temporarily attaching to the several stations pieces of card of different colors to note the different conditions of the weather, and the clearness, cloudiness, rain, or snow. This matter is not only of interest to visitors in exhibiting the kind of weather which their friends at a distance are experiencing, but is also of importance in determining at a glance the probable changes which may soon be expected."1

In a still earlier report Professor Henry said:

"We are indebted to the National Telegraph Line for a series of observations from New Orleans to New York, and as far westward as Cincinnati, Ohio, which

1" 13th Annual Report of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution," p. 32. (1858.)