226 NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 
“No portion of the appropriation granted by the Secretary of War has been 
expended by the committee.” 7° 
This report appears at first somewhat enigmatic, because the 
inference from it would be that the purity of whiskey depended 
on its age. In one sense, however, this is true because, as is well 
known, some of the poisonous components of the complex dis- 
tillate break up in the lapse of time into less harmful ethers, 
esters and higher alcohols. It follows, therefore, that the older 
the whiskey, the less harmful its ingredients, and in this sense it 
is purer. 
The practice of prescribing alcohol instead of whiskey as a 
stimulant, as recommended by the committee, is sometimes 
adopted in hospitals and has the sanction of physicians. 
COMMITTEE ON EXPERIMENTS ON THE EXPANSION 
OF STEAM. 1864 
It is recorded in the first Annual of the Academy that on 
February 29, 1864, “ the Hon. Gideon Welles, Secretary of the 
Navy, invited the appointment of a committee of three members 
of the Academy to act jointly with three members named by the 
Department and with three members of the Franklin Institute 
of Pennsylvania, for the promotion of the Mechanic Arts, to 
conduct, witness, and report upon experiments which may be 
agreed upon by the Commission on the expansion of Steam. 
The experiments are to be reported as early as practicable to 
the Department, and to be submitted also to the National 
Academy of Sciences for its judgment and suggestions.” ** The 
investigation was undertaken by authority of Congress. 
The Academy appointed as its committee Fairman Rogers, 
F. A. P. Barnard and Joseph Saxton. The Navy Department 
appointees were Horatio Allen, Chas. H. Davis (a member of 
the Academy) and B. F. Isherwood, and those of the Franklin 
Institute, J. H. Towne, J. V. Merrick, and R. A. Tilghman. 
** Rep. Nat. Acad. Sci. for 1864, p. 5. Only Torrey and LeConte signed the report. The 
other members were absent. 
* Ann. Nat. Acad. Sci. for 1863-64, p. 39- 
