ANNALS OF THE ACADEMY 27 
considered that it was largely through their activities that the 
Academy was to fulfil its functions. In his report for 1863 he 
remarks: 
“ The first trial of the working of the Academy was to be made, and the first 
effort was to be through the action of a Committee on Weights and Measures, 
for the appointment of which, to consider the subject of the ‘ Uniformity of 
Weights, Measures and Coins, considered in relation to domestic and inter- 
national commerce,’ the Academy had been addressed before its adjournment by 
the Hon. Secretary of the Treasury, S. P. Chase. 
“Tt was obvious that the only effective and prompt mode of action by members 
scattered over the United States, as were the fifty named in the charter, must be 
through committees. Action must originate with committees, and be perfected by 
discussion in the general meetings of the Academy, or in the classes or sections. 
Decisions to be finally pronounced by the entire body.” + 
For the first time, the Academy listened to the reading of 
scientific papers by its members. In the program were in- 
cluded the names of Agassiz, Alexander, Bache, F. A. P. 
Barnard, J. G. Barnard, B. A. Gould, Henry, Peirce, Ruther- 
furd and Strong. The subjects of the 16 papers that were pre- 
sented were all connected with the physical sciences, except 
three by Professor Agassiz (two of which related to fishes and 
one to individuality among animals), and one by Stephen 
Alexander on the forms of icebergs. The preponderance of 
physical subjects is not surprising, when it is recalled that two- 
thirds of the membership at this time were enrolled in the class 
of mathematics and physics. 
The papers were referred to the Committee on Publication, 
which was instructed to “take order” for their publication, 
while the Council was directed to provide the means. ‘The 
Academy was at this time without funds, except the amounts 
received from members as dues, and the orders could not, there- 
fore, be carried out immediately. It was not until 1866 that 
the first volume of the Memoirs of the Academy was issued, and 
this contained but two of the 16 papers read at the first scientific 
meeting in 1864. It was proposed in 1866 to collect and pub- 
* Annual Report of the President for 1863. Ann. Nat. Acad. Sci. for 1863-4 (1865), p.49. 
