586 CONGRESSIOKAL PROCEEDINGS. 



the several branches can scarcely be represented l)y twenty-one indi- 

 viduals, and it may occur in case of a particular paper that not a 

 single member of the council is full}^ 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 sim- 

 ple and, in the opinion of the committee, sufficient. They have pro- 

 vided in their programme of organization as follows: 



First. 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 specula- 

 tions to be rejected. 



Second. Each memoir presented to the Institution to be submitted 

 for examination to a commission of persons of reputation for learning 

 in the branch to which the memoir pertains; and to be accepted for 

 publication only in case the report of this commission is favorable. 



Third. The commission to be chosen by the officers of the Institu- 

 tion, and the name of the author, as far as practicable, concealed 

 unless a favorable decision be made. 



It will be perceived that there is nothing like a "star chamber of 

 science" in this part of the plan of the Institution. The opinion of the 

 commission is formed upon the merits of the work or paper, and can 

 not be affected by partiality for or prejudice against the author, whose 

 name is unknown to them. 



If any author should feel himself aggrieved by the appointment of 

 an incompetent or prejudiced commission, he will have no difficulty in 

 .presenting a complaint to the Board of Regents, by whom another 

 commission may be named. In fact, no well-founded complaint on 

 this score has 3'et been made, so far as has been shown to this commit- 

 tee, and the danger complained of seems to them only speculative and 

 fanciful. The Board of Regents have full power to remedy whatever 

 may be wrong in the practical working of this part of the plan, and it 

 will be time enough to ask the interference of Congress when the evils 

 which are now only conjectural shall be realized. 



Mr. Meacham suggests "that the Institution should be placed in 

 such a position that legal redress may be gained by those who are 

 improperly deprived of their rights." 



It is true that the Institution is not a corporation capable of suing or 

 being sued. But no practical evils have as yet resulted from the 

 refusal of Congress to make the establishment an incorporation. It is 

 a peculiar establishment. Its operations are simple and few. Its con- 

 tracts are such as can seldom form the suljject of controversy. If the 

 Institution should find necessit}' for legal redress, there is nothing to 



