42 NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 
1873-1877 
In 1872 the Academy lost another of its original members, 
John F. Frazer, and in 1873 three more,—Louis Agassiz (who 
was one of the most prominent leaders in the establishment of the 
Academy, and who held the office of Foreign Secretary for 
eleven years), Joseph Saxton and John Torrey. The latter year 
seems to have been otherwise uneventful. 
Following its policy of promoting astronomical science, a com- 
mittee was appointed in 1873 “to take into consideration the 
need of more Accurate Investigation, and Tables of the Celestial 
Movements, and to devise such measures as may seem best 
adapted to improve the Accuracy of Astronomical Tables.” 
Joseph Henry this year expressed his intention of resigning 
the presidency, which he had held for six years, the term fixed 
by the constitution. A letter “ numerously signed by members 
of the Academy ” was, however, presented at the first session of 
1874, and Henry thereupon decided to withhold his resignation, 
and continue to serve as President, which he did until his death 
in 1878. 
The interest felt by the members of the Academy in the 
metric system of weights and measures was newly manifested 
in 1875. As is well-known, an international conference on new 
metric standards was held in Paris in 1870, but its deliberations 
were interrupted by the opening of the Franco-Prussian War. 
It convened again in 1872 and soon afterward the proposition 
was advanced that an international bureau of weights and 
measures be established. At the April meeting of 1875 the 
Academy passed resolutions soliciting the President of the 
same resolution, on motion of General Meigs, in slightly different form, thus: “ Resolved, 
That the President and Council of the National Academy be requested to prepare and 
present to Congress in the name of the Academy a memorial advising that the course of 
Experiments upon American Coals, made under direction of Congress by the Navy Depart- 
ment and reported in Johnson’s Report on American Coals, be resumed and continued so as 
to include all the coals now used in the United States in sufficient quantities to be of value 
in the arts, and in manufactures, and in commerce.” (Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., vol. 1, pp. 115, 
116.) 
The records of the Academy do not contain any information as to the reasons which 
prompted this action, or the results which followed from it. 
