294 DAVENPORT ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



duly attened to." The subject was referred by the House of Repre- 

 sentatives to Jefferson, then Secretary of State, for a report, which was 

 made in July, 1790. When it became known that France was con- 

 sidering the same question, the Senate committee to whom had been 

 referred Jefferson's propositions decided that it was best not to intro- 

 duce any alterations in the standards then in use. Washington, in 

 his address to the Second Congress, again urged the need of action. 

 The subject was next brought to public attention by Madison. This 

 portion of the President's address was referred by the Senate to John 

 Quincy Adams, Secretary of State, who submitted his plan February 

 22, 1821. He advised consultation with foreign nations for the future 

 and ultimate establishment of universal and permanent uniformity. 

 No further action was taken till 1828, whan an Act was passed legal- 

 izing a Troy pound as standard for the use of the mint. It was not 

 till July 27, 1866, that the metric system was legalized by act of Con- 

 gress. The passage of this Act was largely due to Hon. J. A. Kasson 

 of Iowa, chairman of the House committee on coinage, weights and 

 measures, who strongly urged the adoption of the measure in Congress 

 and before the Convocation of the University of New York. In 1873 

 a committee of the British Association for the Advancement of Sci- 

 ence was appointed to "select a nomenclature for dynamical and 

 electrical units," with the intention of making them international. 

 The gramme, centimetre, and second of time were chosen and have 

 been adopted by all scientific men. As the use of the metric system 

 became more general, in order to insure the preservation of metro- 

 logical prototypes certain nations, among them the United States, 

 agreed by a treaty signed in 1875 t0 establish an International Bureau 

 of Weights and Measures at Paris. The administration and mainten- 

 ance of this Bureau is vested in an international committee appointed 

 by the twenty-nine nations that have become parties to the treaty of 

 1875. The work so far accomplished by the Bureau has been to con- 

 struct the standards, which have been distributed to the nations form- 

 ing the Bureau. In addition to this a standard decimal thermometric 

 scale and normal barometer have been constructed. The metric sys- 

 tem is in use in the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey and it 

 is to be hoped that our government, after having endorsed the metric 

 system as the best for international usage that has been devised, and a 

 system that has proved adequate for all purposes, will at least require 

 its use in all government transactions. We should, as an Academy of 

 Science, do all in our power to enlist the hearty cooperation of Con- 

 gressional representatives from Iowa in enacting necessary legislation. 

 Hon. Charles W. Stone, chairman of the Committee on Coinage, 

 Weights and Measures, says in his report to Congress, June 20, 1898: 

 " Put the system in practical and uniform operation in the transac- 

 tions of the government and the adoption by the people will take care 

 of itself. Its merits will be brought home to them in a practical way 

 and knowledge will inevitably bring approval. No compulsion of the 



