Henry, and attend to details that Professor Henry could not attend to. I assist in the correspondence, accounts, general superintendance of the building, &c.

Mr. Wells. Did you have any opportunity of knowing the business of Mr. Blodgett?

Mr. Rhees. Yes, sir. I opened the mail for his department, and knew all about his business, except a scientific knowledge of it.

Mr. Wells. From what you know of Mr. Blodgett, do you think his statements and opinions would have much weight with yourself or others?

Mr. Rhees. It would depend upon what the statements were. His statements regarding changes in the Institution had weight, because I had no reason to doubt his assertion.

Mr. Wells.-Do you think Mr. Blodgett is such a man as that those who were engaged with him in the plan of change would have placed him at the head of it-entrust its management to him?

Mr. Rhees. I don't know what estimate others placed on his character. He was a stranger to me. I had known him but a very short

time when he made the statements I have referred to.

Mr. Wells. If you knew of any plan to produce changes, how did you know it, and what was the plan?

Mr. Rhees. I knew it from the nature of my business, as confidential secretary to Professor Henry. I saw all the letters addressed to him. That was one way. Another way was, from hearing conversations; and a third, my own observations.

Mr. Wells.-Who besides Mr. Blodgett told you of any plan?

Mr. Rhees.-I do not wish to implicate any one else. I knew it from written and oral communications to Professor Henry by his friends, and otherwise. Prefer not to reveal names.

Senator Pearce.-When you say you knew of such a plan, do you mean that you had positive knowledge of it from any one concerned in it? Or, do you mean that you inferred it from what you saw and heard?

Mr. Rhees. I had no positive knowledge from any person concerned in it till Mr. Blodgett's communication to me. Before that, of course, all was a matter of belief with me, from the facts within my knowledge. I never heard any one who was interested in the plan speak of it but Mr. Blodgett. I never heard Professors Baird or Jewett allude to, or say a word on the subject at any time.

Mr. Wells. Did you think Mr. Blodgett's proposition a responsible one, and that he could carry it out?

Mr. Rhees.-I did not think he could carry it out. I regarded it as responsible.

Mr. Blodgett.-When was the conversation to which you refer the first conversation?

Mr. Rhees. I think about a month after I came into the Institution. Mr. Blodgett. Did you not ask my advice about remaining in the Institution or seeking to return to the Census Office, from which you had been removed?

Mr. Rhees.-No, sir. That relates to another subject or matter.

Mr. Blodgett.-Was not the conversation wholly in relation to advice?

Mr. Rhees. The conversation I refer to in my testimony was prior to the one now referred to.

Mr. B.-When did the conversation to which you now refer take place?

Mr. Rhees. It was soon after I entered upon my duties.

Mr. B.-Was it before or after we returned from Cleveland?

Mr. Rhees. I know positively there were two distinct interviews— I cannot say of the date exactly, and cannot say whether the one now referred to was before or after the return from Cleveland.

Mr. B.-When was the first intimation of the plan you have referred to brought to your knowledge?

Mr. Rhees. I cannot say. I cannot say that I had any intimation of a plan before I came into the Institution.

Mr. B.-Was the significance of a subsequent conversation with you to get you to remove Professor Henry's misapprehensions?

Mr. Rhees.-That was one of the suggestions.

Mr. B.-Were not conversations of the same character as all those I had with you frequently had with Professor Henry in your presence? Mr. Rhees.-No.

Mr. B.-When was the written or verbal order first made, that the correspondence to which you refer should be submitted to the secretary?

Mr. Rhees. I always understood from Professor Henry that this was the rule from the beginning. He always told me so. I always understood it so from the time I entered the Institution.

Mr. B.-Did this relate to scientific correspondence?

Mr. Rhees.-I knew no difference.

Mr. B.-Had you any authority in the matter of correspondence? Mr. Rhees. Only as agent of Professor Henry.

Mr. B.-Were you aware at the time you entered of any objection to the correspondence I conducted?

Mr. Rhees. I knew nothing of his correspondence at that time.
Mr. B.-At what time did you know of any objection?

Mr. Rhees. As soon as I became acquainted with my business in the Institution.

Mr. B.-At what time did you become acquainted with the business of the Institution, so as to know of objections, &c.?

Mr. Rhees.-In less than a month.

Mr. B.-Was it before or after return from Cleaveland?

Mr. Rhees.-It was before.

Mr. B.-Did I protest against the form and amount of receipts at first?

Mr. Rhees. I think not; but did afterwards protest against both form and amount.

Senator Pearce here introduced and read a letter from Mr. Blodgett, published some time in 1854 in a northern paper, dated July 10, 1854; at the conclusion of which,

Committee adjourned till to-morrow evening, at seven, p. m., same place.

WEDNESDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 21, 1855.

Committee met pursuant to adjournment.

Present: All the members of the committee.

The same witnesses as before, except Messrs. Wallach and Hope, who were discharged at last meeting.

Professor Coffin examined.

Mr. Pearce.-State your profession and residence.

Professor Coffin.-I reside in Easton, Pennsylvania; am a professor in Lafayette College.

Mr. Pearce. How long have you been engaged in making meteorological researches?

Professor C.-Something over twenty years.

Mr. Pearce. Have you ever published works or essays on meteorology, or subjects connected with it, and state their character, and the extent to which they were circulated?

Professor C.-I have published a good many things; cannot now state the number. In 1838 I published a report of the regents of the State of New York. I also prepared an article on the climate of that State twelve years ago. They were published by State authority. I also commenced a periodical, which was soon suspended for want of patronage.

Mr. Pearce. Are you acquainted with what has been done in meteorology, and what have been your means of information?

Professor C.-I have had occasion to examine meteorological records very extensively.

Mr. Pearce.-Had you any knowledge of Mr. Blodgett as a meteorologist previous to his connexion with the Smithsonian Institution? Professor C.-I don't recollect ever to have heard of him. My researches which led me to a connexion with the works of the Smithsonian Institution date back some years, say six or seven years.

Mr. Pearce. If you have examined into them, state your opinion of the amount, the value, and the completeness of Mr. Blodgett's labors in the Institution.

Professor C.-I have examined them. There is a large amount of matter there, a great many sheets, and I regard them as valuable. As to their completeness, I think they should be revised carefully before publication, and new matter added.

Mr. Pearce. What do you say respecting the number and importance of his omissions and errors?

Professor C.-I hastily run over to see those places in the records 1 was familiar with. I noticed from one hundred and fifty to two hundred omissions. In that list I found many with which I am familiar. Among them I noticed the entire collection of observations taken in Pennsylvania, through a system established by aid from the State in 1838, with a single exception, one station out of some fifty. There were a number of errors pointed out to me. I examined one myself, to see that it was so. There are numerous errors in a small space. I do not know that all these errors were committed by Mr. Blodgett; they may have been copied by him from others.

Mr. Pearce. What is your opinion of the originality and merit of his processes?

Professor C.-I have not discovered anything new or original in them, unless it be the classification of his stations; that is, in a sense, new, and in a sense, not new. For the purposes of discussion and research, his method has often been adopted before; but, for the purpose of a published list of observations, I never saw it before, nor do I think it a proper one.

Mr. Pearce. What do you think of his claims to authorship?

Professor C.-The peculiar character of the Institution renders it a little difficult to answer the question. Persons are employed there to be, in a sense, authors. They may have work assigned them to do, and so far they are authors. Except his discussions and deductions, I do not discover any thing but that which a clerk might do.

Mr. Pearce.-Do you know that Mr. Blodgett refused to allow his work to be examined?

Professor C.-I do.

Mr. Pearce. Did he ever threaten he would destroy it?
Professor C.-Yes.

Mr. Pearce.-State what you consider the character and habits of the secretary as to jealousy of the scientific reputation of others, depreciation of the merits of their labors, and disinclination to give them due credit.

Professor C.-I never knew a man that was freer from anything of that kind.

Mr. Pearce. Is it likely your work on the winds would have been published if the Smithsonian Institution had not undertaken it?

Professor C.-The work is but an expansion of a previous one. By appointment of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, under its old organization, I prepared a report on the subject. The report, in brief form, would have been published, but the enlarged work would not.

Mr. Wells. What is your business at this time?

Professor C.-I am now making an examination of meteorological matter in the Smithsonian Institution. I am there temporarily.

Mr. Meacham.-Do you know whether there was or was not material in the Institution to supply the omissions, to which you referred a while ago, in Mr. Blodgett's work?

Professor C.-I presume there was not.

Mr. Meacham.-There was no blame on his part, then?

Professor C.—I did not intend, in my answer, to imply blame. There was material in the department, but he might not have been aware of it.

Mr. Meacham. Did you examine the work yourself?

Professor C.-I examined it, but not with a view to that particular object.

Mr. Meacham.-By whom was your attention called to the errors or omissions?

Professor C.-By a Mr. Debeitsch, of the Institution. He is a temporary employee there.

Mr. Meacham.-Are you familiar with Mr. Blodgett's plans?

Professor C.-In the case pointed out, I am. I think I am with his plans generally.

Mr. Meacham.-Are you aware of any estimate placed upon this plan by the association at Cleveland?

Professor C.-I am not.

Mr. Meacham. Has there ever been published in this country a chart of climate, such as he has produced?

Professor C.-I noticed several charts. I do not know to which you refer. I have not seen anything like it produced in this country, nor do I recollect anything like it from any other country.

Mr. Meacham.-Will you tell me in what sense employees of the Institution can be authors?

Professor C.-They may be employed to engage in specific investigations for the Institution, and so far might be said to be authors.

Mr. Meacham. Do you consider that such employment would deprive them of their right of discovery of new principles of reducing

materials?

Professor C.-In my opinion, always entertained of the organization of the Institution, it would.

Mr. Meacham.-Do you know of any chart of the temperature, such as that prepared by Mr. Blodgett?

Professor C.-I discovered no difference between that chart and others of a like character which I have seen. I have examined the chart.

Mr. Meacham.-Do you know of any such produced in this country? Professor C.-I do not, not prepared in this country, but I know of such that embrace observations in this country. I have discovered nothing original in the plan.

Mr. Witte. Do you regard the Institution as instrumental in producing such charts?

Professor C.-I am certain that such things would never have been produced without such an Institution. There is in the plan of the Institution something peculiarly for the collection of such facts better than in this or any other country, I believe.

Mr. Meacham.-Were those materials all gathered by the Institution?

Professor C.-It is my belief that a very large portion of them were. The whole collected by the War Department would not amount to onetenth of those collected by the Institution. The collections made by the War Department and by the States of New York and Massachusetts are less than one-half the whole in the Institution.

Mr. Witte. At how many points or stations in the Union are these things gathered?

Professor C.-There are some two hundred.

Mr. Meacham. How long had the War Department been gathering before the Institution commenced?

Professor C.-I think the first publication of the department would date in 1823, some 25 years before the Institution began.

Mr. Meacham.-How long have you been in the Institution?
Professor C.-About a fortnight.