1j.—THE FIRST DECADE OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COM- 
MISSION: ITS PLAN OF WORK AND ACCOMPLISHED RESULTS, 
SCIENTIFIC AND ECONOMICAL. 
[Read at the Boston meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of 
Science, August, 1880. ] 
By G. BROWN GOODE. 
There are nine departments of the government devoted, in part or 
wholly, to researches in pure and applied science—the Geological 
Survey; the Coast and Geodetic Survey; the Naval Observatory ; 
the National Museum; the Department of Agriculture; the Entomolog- 
ical Commission; the Tenth Census, with its special agencies for the 
study of the natural resources of the country; the Smithsonian Bureau of 
. Ethnology, and the Commission of Fish and Fisheries. The Smithso- 
nian Institution, established upon an independent foundation, should 
also be mentioned, as well as the Medical Museum of the Army, and 
the various laboratories under the control of the Army and Navy 
Departments. 
The Geological Survey is not now carrying on any of the schemes of 
zoological and botanical investigation engaged in by its predecessors. 
The work of the Entomological Commission and that of the Census, 
though of extreme importance, are limited in scope and duration, while 
that of the Agricultural Department is necessarily, for the most part, 
economical, 
The work of the National Museum is chiefly confined to the study of 
collections made by government surveys or individual collectors and 
sent in to be reported upon. 
The work of the Fish Commission, in one of its aspects, may perhaps 
_ be regarded as the most prominent of the present efforts of the govern- 
‘ment in aid of aggressive biological research. 
On the 9th of February, 1874, Congress passed a joint resolution 
which authorized the appointment of a Commissioner of Fish and Fish- 
eries. The duties of the Commissioner were thus defined: ‘To prose- 
cute investigations on the subject (of the diminution of valuable fishes) 
with the view of ascertaing whether any and what diminution in the 
number of the food-fishes of the coast and the lakes of the United States 
has taken place; and, if so, to what causes the same is due; and also 
whether any and what protective, prohibitory, or precautionary meas- 
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