COMMITTEES ON BEHALF OF THE GOVERNMENT 247 
real utility of the meter and to resolve his doubts he, accordingly, 
appointed an expert commission to make a series of practical 
tests regarding it in order to ascertain whether its use should be 
continued.** 
Who these experts were, or what was the nature of their find- 
ing is not disclosed in the reports of the Commissioner of 
Internal Revenue, but it is evident that the latter was unfavorable 
to the use of the meter, for we read in the report for 1871 that 
“the period within which distillers were required to procure 
meters was extended from time to time until the 8th day of June, 
1871, when Circular No. 96 was issued discontinuing their use.” 
Thus, at the end of nearly five years’ agitation of the subject 
the Government abandoned its project of utilizing meters to 
gauge the capacity of distilleries, but found itself in possession 
of improved instruments for proving spirits. Of the latter, 
which were recommended by the committee of the Academy 
the Commissioner of Internal Revenue said in 1871, “‘ These 
instruments distributed under the present system of inspection, 
seem to give general satisfaction, and their accuracy and uni- 
formity have relieved the trade of the embarrassments resulting 
from errors in gauging.” * 
COMMITTEE ON THE IMPROVEMENT OF GREYTOWN 
HARBOR, NICARAGUA. 1866 
For one brief period the Academy was concerned with a 
question connected with the great problem of an isthmian canal 
which had occupied so many minds since the discovery of 
America. In the middle of the 19th century attention was being 
concentrated more and more on Nicaragua as the region which 
offered the greatest natural advantages for the construction of 
this important artificial waterway, and diplomatic contests were 
being waged unceasingly by capitalists and by the principal com- 
mercial nations of the world to gain or maintain control over the 
* Rep. Comm. Int. Rev. for 1869, pp. xvi, xvii. 
* Rep. Comm. Int. Rey. for 1871, p. vi. 
” Op. cit., p. Vii. 
