COMMITTEES ON BEHALF OF THE GOVERNMENT 297 
The questions which the committee was requested to consider 
were as follows: 
“ First. What is the organization of the government surveys, and of the 
signal service, in the chief countries of Europe, and could any part of this organi- 
zation be advantageously adopted in this country? 
“ Secondly. In what way can the scientific branches above referred to be best 
co-ordinated ? 
“ Thirdly. What changes in, or additions to, these branches are desirable? ” 14° 
The report of the committee was submitted on September 24, 
1884, and with the appendices, covers 3c pages. To the first 
inquiry propounded by the Joint Commission the committee 
replied that in its opinion the efficiency of the surveys of the 
United States would not be increased by adopting any form of 
organization existing in Europe, but that a more extended use 
of photography and zincography might prove economical in the 
production of maps and charts. It then called attention to a 
previous recommendation of the Academy that the Coast Survey 
be transferred to the Department of the Interior and that its 
work be extended to include topographic land surveys. The 
committee recommended that the Weather Bureau be separated 
from the Signal Service of the War Department and placed un- 
der the control of a scientific commission. No immediate change 
in the scope of the Hydrographic Office was recommended, 
but it was suggested that when the original survey of the coast 
should be finished, the work of re-sounding, re-examining, etc., 
might perhaps be advantageously committed to the Navy De- 
partment. Having given attention to these particulars, the com- 
mittee then pronounced its conviction that a proper codrdination 
of the scientific work of the Government would be most satis- 
factorily effected by the establishment of a Department of 
Science. It was proposed that this Department should include 
the Coast and Geodetic Survey under the name of the Coast and 
Interior Survey; the Geological Survey, unchanged; a Meteor- 
ological Bureau, to which should be transferred the main portion 
of the meteorological work of the Signal Service; and a physical 
Rep. Nat. Acad. Sci. for 1884, p. 35. 
