308 NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 
fiber, others with 80 or 85 per cent., and that some of the contaminations are 
soluble in cold water, others requiring hot water and soap, or other chemicals, and 
still others, mechanical, and requiring special machinery for their removal. 
“ From all this it will be seen that any classification of wools for tariff, founded 
on any of the physical characters named, or on the alleged treatment, as 
‘ unwashed,’ ‘ washed,’ or ‘ scoured,’ must of necessity be entirely arbitrary, and in 
very many cases uncertain and unsatisfactory, since each character is variable in 
itself, and by its combinations allows of an infinite number of gradings and sorts, 
so that, however classified, according to these characters there will be many 
samples which will lie so near the assumed border lines that their actual place will 
be a matter of opinion rather than of demonstration. 
“ A classification may, however, be founded on chemical characters determined 
by the amount of actual wool fiber, which may be used as the fixed quantity for 
rating a specific tariff. The actual wool fiber may be readily and accurately 
determined by chemical methods, beyond any reasonable question. 
“Inasmuch as the commercial values depend greatly on the fineness of the 
wools, and any tariff classification founded on the weight of actual wool substance 
would bear most heavily on the coarser and cheaper sorts, the ad valorem element 
may be combined with the fixed element suggested, in order to meet any special 
ends other than that of mere revenue.” 157 
Up to the present time, Congress has not adopted the sug- 
gestion of the committee in regard to the classification of wools, 
but has continued to impose special rates on “ washed ” wool and 
“scoured ” wool. 
COMMITTEE ON QUARTZ PLATES USED IN SACCHARIMETERS 
FOR SUGAR DETERMINATIONS. 1887 
After the polariscope method had been used for some years by 
the Government in determining the saccharine strength of sugars 
on which customs duties were levied, the Treasury Department 
appealed to the Academy to test certain quartz plates used in the 
saccharimeters. The following letter was addressed to the 
Academy by the Secretary of the Treasury, C. S. Fairchild: 
“TREASURY DEPARTMENT, 
“WasHINcTON, D. C., June 17, 1887. 
“GENTLEMEN: Certain questions connected with the classification of imported 
sugars are now under consideration by this Department. It becomes necessary 
that three standard quartz plates used by appraisers in determining the saccharine 
*T Rep. Nat. Acad. Sci. for 1885, p. 99. 
