COMMITTEES ON BEHALF OF THE GOVERNMENT 219 
At the time this new instrument was under consideration, the 
Bureau of Internal Revenue, which was organized the preceding 
year, was employing Tralles’ hydrometer, which, as is well 
known, is a special form of Gay Lussac’s hydrometer. It was not 
entirely satisfactory, as the committee pointed out, for the 
reason that the scale was not easily read, and because it was 
difficult to make the proper allowance for capillary attraction. 
The committee, which reported on January 7, 1864, recom- 
mended in favor of the adoption of Saxton’s alcoholometer by 
the Government on the ground that it was more portable than 
Tralles’, less easily broken, and less difficult to read, although the 
opinion was expressed that it would be reliable only in careful 
hands. 
COMMITTEE ON WIND AND CURRENT CHARTS AND SAILING 
DIRECTIONS. 1863 
This committee was the fifth among those appointed in 1863. 
The explanatory note regarding it contained in the Annual of 
the Academy for the year is as follows: “‘ Appointed May 2sth, 
1863, at the request of the Navy Department, conveyed through 
Rear-Admiral C. H. Davis, May 23d, 1863, asking for an investi- 
gation and report on the subject of discontinuing the publication, 
in the present form, of the Wind and Current Charts and Sailing 
Directions.” 
The history of these publications, the circumstances that 
brought them to the attention of the Academy, the character of 
the committee that passed on them, and the verdict of science 
regarding them are all matters of more than ordinary interest. 
They were devised by Matthew Fontaine Maury, whose 
singular career may be summarized for the benefit of those not 
already acquainted with it. Maury who was a Virginian by 
birth, entered the Navy in 1825 and a few years later was 
detailed to join the United States Exploring Expedition. As an 
officer of the ship Vincennes, he circumnavigated the globe. In 
1836 he reached the grade of lieutenant and became astronomer 
to the expedition. Three years later he met with an accident 
