246 NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 
such instruments as applied to distilleries, or that the new com- 
mittee would merely renew the recommendation of the com- 
mittee of the Academy, or that to enact the second section of the 
resolution, which prohibited the Treasury Department from 
attaching any more meters to distilleries until the Commission 
reported, would open the door to greater frauds. ‘Those who 
favored the resolution pointed out that the Tice meter had 
proved effective as far as tried, but that other devices had been 
brought forward after the adoption of the former had been 
decided upon, which while operating on the same principle, 
might give more accurate results, or operating on other prin- 
ciples might give a better indication of the amount of spirits 
produced or producible. They considered that the inventors of 
these devices were entitled to a hearing and that the distillers 
should not be compelled to pay for the Tice meters while it was 
still uncertain whether they might not be soon discarded for 
more effective ones. In the end the resolution prevailed and 
was approved. 
Upon the passage of this resolution, the manufacturer whose 
meters had been adopted by the Treasury Department, I. P. 
Tice, discharged his employees and closed his manufactory. 
The report of the new commission was submitted in March, 
1868, and was again favorable to the Tice meter, which the com- 
mittee of the Academy had already recommended. No action 
was taken thereon, however, until July 20, 1868, when the Com- 
missioner of Internal Revenue was authorized to adopt and pre- 
scribe for use such meters as he should deem necessary. He once 
more adopted the Tice meter, and Mr. Tice was persuaded to 
reopen his manufactory and construct the instruments required. 
Though he employed some 125 workmen to construct the meters 
and others to attach them to the distilleries, only eleven were so 
equipped in November, 1868. The distillers resisted the use of 
the meters as far as possible, and some closed their distilleries to 
prevent the application of the instruments.” 
The matter had progressed thus far when the Commissioner 
of Internal Revenue began to entertain suspicions as to the 
Rep. Comm. Int. Rev. for 1868, pp. xx, xxi. 
