COMMITTEES ON BEHALF OF THE GOVERNMENT 207 



name. It became a standing committee, and, although rated as 

 a committee on business of the Academy, it has reported a num- 

 ber of times on matters referred to the Academy by the Govern- 

 ment. During the forty-six years that have elapsed since 1867, 

 twenty-two members of the Academy have served on this com- 

 mittee, including three who belonged to the original Committee 

 No. I. These are J. H. Alexander, F. A. P. Barnard, C. B. Com- 

 stock, Henry Draper, Wolcott Gibbs, B. A. Gould, Henry, 

 Hilgard, Lovering, Meigs, Mendenhall, Michelson, Morley, 

 Newcomb, H. A. Newton, C. S. Peirce, Saxton, Sellers, W. P. 

 Trowbridge, Webster, R. S. Woodward, Young. 



In regard to the subject-matter which the original Committee 

 No. I was to consider. Professor Bache remarked in his first 

 report as President of the Academy (1863), as follows: 



" It is not a little strange in our country, where the decimal system of coinage 

 proved at once acceptable, notwithstanding the capital errors committed in, for 

 a long time, keeping in use foreign coins of no convenient relation to the decimal 

 system, that nothing of the kind was effected for weights and measures, and still 

 more strange that the antiquated and cumbrous variety of tables by which articles 

 of different classes were bought and sold should have been retained, that even in 

 our preparation of a national system intended for practical use neither the deci- 

 malization of the weights and measures nor the simplicity of one weight of one 

 name should have been adopted. The influence of great names can alone probably 

 explain this, without justifying it." ^ 



The proceedings of the committee were not reported in full, 

 but Professor Bache informs us that " the discussions in the body 

 of this committee were strongly in favor of the adoption of the 

 French metrical system, but more strongly, in fact unanimously, 

 in favor of the effort to arrive at a thorough international 

 system — a universal system of weights, measures, and coins, 

 available for the general acceptance of all nations." ' 



It will readily be understood that the committee was not pre- 

 pared to submit at once a general report on so comprehensive 

 and important a matter. They adopted the plan of dividing into 

 subcommittees, each of which should inquire into the system of 

 weights and measures employed by one or more countries. Hav- 



"Rep. Nat. Acad. Sci. for 1863, p. 4. 

 ' Loc. cit. 



