have been published in the Evening Star, of this city. These reports have excited much interest, and could they be extended further north and more generally to the west, they would furnish important observations as to the approach of storms. We hope in the course of another year to make such an arrangement with the telegraph lines as to be able to give warning 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.

In 1868, Cleveland Abbe, then director of the Cincinnati Observatory, revived the Smithsonian idea of meteorological forecasts, and suggested to the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce that Cincinnati should be made the headquarters of meteorological observation for the United States, "for the purpose of collecting and comparing telegraphic weather reports from all parts of the land and making deductions therefrom." His proposals were favorably received, and he began, September 1, 1869, to issue the "Weather Bulletin of the Cincinnati Observatory," which he continued until, in January, 1871, he was summoned to Washington to assist in organizing the national meteorological service, with which he has ever since been identified.

The Smithsonian meteorological system continued its functions until it was finally consigned to the custody of the chief signal officer of the army. Like all the efforts of this institution, this work was in the direction of supplementing and harmonizing the work of all others, and attention was especially devoted to preparing and distributing blank forms in this direction, calculating and publishing extensive papers for systematizing observations, introducing standard instruments, collecting all public documents, printed matter, and manuscript records bearing on the meteorology of the American continent, submitting these materials for scientific discussion, and publishing their results. The Smithsonian work was, during its whole existence, under the immediate personal direction of Professor Henry, assisted by Professor Arnold Guyot, who, in 1850,

1" 12th Annual Report of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1857," p, 26. Also, “20th Annual Report of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1855," pp. 54-57.

prepared and published an exhaustive series of directions for meteorological observations, intended for the first-class observers co-operating with the Smithsonian Institution.

The seeds planted by the army in 1819 began to bear perfect fruit fifty years later, when by act of Congress, in 1870, the Secretary of War was authorized to carry into effect a scheme for "giving notice by telegraph and signals of the approach and force of storms," and the organization of a meteorological bureau adequate to the investigation of American storms, and their pre-announcement along the northern lakes and the sea-coast was, under the auspices of the War Department, trusted to the chief signal officer of the army, Brigadier-General Albert J. Myer, and a division, created in his office, was designated as the "Division of Telegrams and Reports for the Benefit of Commerce."

By a subsequent act of Congress, approved June 10, 1872, the Signal Service was charged with the duty of providing such stations, signals, and reports as might be found necessary for extending its research in the interest of agriculture In 1873, the work of the bureau of the division having been eminently successful, and its successes having been recognized abroad as well as in this country, Congress, by a further act, authorized the establishment of signal-service stations at the light-houses and life-saving stations on the lake sea-coasts, and made provision for connecting them with telegraph lines or cables, "to be constructed, maintained, and worked under the direction of a chief signal officer of the army, or the Secretary of War and the Secretary of the Treasury," and in this year also was begun the publication of a Monthly Weather Review, summarizing in a popular way all its data showing the result of its investigations, as well as presenting these in graphic weather charts.

In 1874 the entire system of Smithsonian weather observation in all parts of the United States was transferred by Professor Henry to the Signal Service. A few months previously, at the proposal of the chief signal officer, in the International Congress of Meteorologists convened at Vienna, the system of world-wide co-operative simultaneous weather observa

tions, since then so extensively developed, was inaugurated, and began to contribute its data to the signal-office records. It is unnecessary to trace further the history of the beginning of the meteorological work of the Signal Service, but I doubt not that every one at all familiar with its subsequent history, under the leadership of Generals Hazen and Greely, will agree with the opinion of Judge Daly, the president of the American Geographical Society, when he said that "nothing in the nature of scientific investigation by the national government has proved so acceptable to the people, or has been so productive in so short a time of such important results, as the establishment of the Signal-Service Bureau."

1

The sixth President, John Quincy Adams, a man of culture broad and deep, found the presidency of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences so congenial to his tastes and sympathies that he did not hesitate to say that he prized it more highly than the chief magistracy of the nation. He considered his most important achievement to be the "Report on Weights and Measures," prepared for Congress in 1818, and was justly proud of it, for it was a very admirable piece of scientific work, and is still considered the most important treatise on the subject ever written.

John Quincy Adams revived Washington's national-university project, and made battle valiantly for an astronomical observatory.

In his first message to Congress afterward, he said:

Among the first, perhaps the very first, instrument for the improvement of the condition of men is knowledge; and to the acquisition of much of the knowledge adapted to the wants, the comforts, and enjoyments of human life, public institutions and seminaries of learning are essential. So convinced of this was the first of my predecessors in this office, now first in the memory, as living he was first in the hearts, of our country, that once and again, in his addresses to the Congresses with whom he co-operated in the public service, he earnestly recommended the establishment of seminaries of learning, to prepare for all the emergencies of peace and war, a National University and a Military

11883, History of the United States Signal Service, with catalogue of its exhibit at the International Fisheries Exhibition. London, 1873; Washington City, 1883; octavo; pp. 1-28.

Academy. With respect to the latter, had he lived to the present day, in turning his eyes to the Institution at West Point, he would have enjoyed the gratification of his most earnest wishes. But in surveying the city which has been honored with his name, he would have seen the spot of earth which he had destined and bequeathed to the use and benefit of his country as the site for a University, still bare and barren." 1

And again:

"Connected with the establishment of a university, or separate from it, might be undertaken the erection of an astronomical observatory, with provision for the support of an astronomer, to be in constant attendance of observance upon the phenomena of the heavens; and for the periodical publications of his observations. It is with no feeling of pride, as an American, that the remark may be made that, on the comparatively small territorial surface of Europe, there are existing upward of one hundred and thirty of these light-houses of the skies; while throughout the whole American hemisphere there is but one. If we reflect a moment upon the discoveries which, in the last four centuries, have been made in the physical constitution of the universe by the means of these buildings, and of observers stationed in them, shall we doubt of their usefulness to every nation? And while scarcely a year passed over our heads without bringing some new astronomical discovery to light, which we must fain receive

'John Quincy Adams, in his diary for November, 1825, describes an interview with his Cabinet, and the discussion which followed the reading of his message before it was finally revised for sending to Congress.

"Mr. Clay wished to have the recommendations of a National University struck out . . . The University, Mr. Clay said, was entirely hopeless, and he thought there was something in the constitutional objection to it. . . . I concurred entirely in the opinion that no projects absolutely impracticable ought to be recommended; but I would look to a practicability of a longer reign than a simple session of Congress. General Washington had recommended the Military Academy more than ten years before it was obtained. The plant may come late, though the seed should be sown early. And I had not recommended a University. I had referred to Washington's recommendations, and observed they had not been carried into effect."

Such opinions as these of Mr. Clay were evidently very much at variance with those of John Quincy Adams and of his illustrious father, whose action in the constitutional convention of Massachusetts has already been referred to, and at variance as well, it would seem, with the opinion of the early Republicans, as with those of the Federalists. The views of Washington and Madison, as well as those of Jefferson and Barlow, on these subjects have already been referred to.

Mr. Adams, in commenting upon an address delivered by Edward Everett before the Columbian Institute, January 16, 1830, remarks:

"I regretted to hear a seeming admission that the powers of giving encouragement to literature and science were greater at least in State governments than in that of the Union." Vol. vii., p. 171.

at second-hand from Europe, are we not cutting ourselves off from the means of returning light for light, while we have neither observatory nor observer upon our half of the globe, and the earth revolves in perpetual darkness to our unsearching eyes?"

This appeal was received with shouts of ridicule; and the proposal "to establish a light-house in the skies" became a common by-word which has scarcely yet ceased to be familiar. So strong was public feeling that, in the year 1832, in reviving an act for the continuance of the survey of the coast, Congress made a proviso, that "nothing in the act should be construed to authorize the construction or maintenance of a permanent astronomical observatory."

Nothing daunted, Mr. Adams contined the struggle, and while a member of the House of Representatives, after his presidential term had expired, he battled for the observatory continually and furiously. An oration delivered by him in Cincinnati, in 1843, closed with these words:

"Is there one tower erected to enable the keen-eyed observer of the heavenly vault to watch from night to night, through the circling year, the movements of the starry heavens and their unnumbered worlds? Look around you, look from the St. John to the Sabine, look from the mouth of the Neversink to the mouth of the Columbia, and you will find not one! or if one, not of our erection."

A correspondent of the London Athenæum, writing from Boston in May, 1840, spoke at length of the dearth of observatories in the United States, and of the efforts of John Quincy Adams to form a national astronomical establishment in connection with the Smithson bequest. The letter is of great interest as showing the state of opinion on scientific matters in America just half a century ago.

BOSTON, May, 1840.

One of the prominent subjects of discussion among our savans is the establishment of Observatories of a character suitable to our standing as a civilized nation, and still more to our exigencies as a practical, and especially as a commercial community. I verily believe that the yearly damage and destruction along our coast, for want of the securities which such institutions would supply, out-balances, beyond comparison, all it would cost to establish and maintain them in every principal city of the land. It is partly a sort of electioneering economy which leaves things thus, and which has hitherto refused or neglected