THIRTY-TUIRD CONGRESS, 1853-55. 621 



direct summons for witnesses, and to conduct the examina- 

 tion whenever he desired to do so. He pointed out only 

 two particulars as requiring additional legislation. 



The tirst was, " that additional legislation was needed to 

 secure impartiality towards authors who apply for the pub- 

 lication of their researches." No instance of partiality or 

 injustice in this respect has been brought to the notice of 

 the committee by proof or by allegation. The idea seema 

 to have been advanced for the first time by one of the as- 

 sistants of the secretary, (Mr. Jewett,) in a communication 

 addressed to a special committee of the regents in the year 

 1854. 



The argument there made by Mr. Jewett has been abbre- 

 viated by Mr. Meacham, and may be stated as objecting that 

 the power of accepting or rejecting a memoir presented for 

 publication is virtually in the hands of one man. 



The practice of the Royal Society of London is stated as 

 being far preferable. On this point the committee would 

 remark that the same plan cannot be adopted by the insti- 

 tution because, as the committee has been informed, it has 

 no fellows from whom an examining council of twenty-one 

 members may be selected. And if the plan could be 

 adopted the committee do not think it as good as the one 

 which the regents have chosen. In the present state of 

 knowledge the several branches can scarcely be represented 

 by twenty-one individuals, and it may occur in case of a 

 particular paper that not a single member of the council is 

 fully competent to decide upon its merits. The institution 

 is not thus restricted ; it has at its command the learning 

 of the whole country, and is not even confined in its choice 

 of examiners to men of science at home, but can select 

 them from distinguished individuals abroad. 



The rules adopted by the regents are in this respect few 

 and simple, and in the opinion of the committee suflicient. 

 They have provided in their programme of organization as 

 follows: 



1st. No memoir, on subjects of physical science, to be 

 accepted for publication which does not furnish a positive 

 addition to human knowledge, resting on original research; 

 and all unverified speculations to be rejected. 



2d. Each memoir presented to the institution to be sub- 

 mitted for examination to a commission of persons of repu- 

 tation for learning in the branch to which the memoir per- 

 tains; and to be accepted for publication only in case the 

 report of this commission is favorable. 



3d. The commission to be chosen by the officers of the 



