COMMITTEES ON BEHALF OF THE GOVERNMENT 247 



real utility of the meter and to resolve his doubts he, accordingly, 

 appointed an expert commission to make a series of practical 

 tests regarding it in order to ascertain whether its use should be 

 continued."^ 



Who these experts were, or what was the nature of their find- 

 ing is not disclosed in the reports of the Commissioner of 

 Internal Revenue, but it is evident that the latter was unfavorable 

 to the use of the meter, for we read in the report for 1871 that 

 " the period within which distillers were required to procure 

 meters was extended from time to time until the 8th day of June, 

 1 871, when Circular No. 96 was issued discontinuing their use." ^^ 



Thus, at the end of nearly five years' agitation of the subject 

 the Government abandoned its project of utilizing meters to 

 gauge the capacity of distilleries, but found itself in possession 

 of improved instruments for proving spirits. Of the latter, 

 which were recommended by the committee of the Academy 

 the Commissioner of Internal Revenue said in 1871, "These 

 instruments distributed under the present system of inspection, 

 seem to give general satisfaction, and their accuracy and uni- 

 formity have relieved the trade of the embarrassments resulting 

 from errors in gauging." "" 



COMMITTEE ON THE IMPROVEMENT OF GREYTOWN 

 HARBOR, NICARAGUA. 1866 



For one brief period the Academy was concerned with a 

 question connected with the great problem of an isthmian canal 

 which had occupied so many minds since the discovery of 

 America. In the middle of the 19th century attention was being 

 concentrated more and more on Nicaragua as the region which 

 offered the greatest natural advantages for the construction of 

 this important artificial waterway, and diplomatic contests were 

 being waged unceasingly by capitalists and by the principal com- 

 mercial nations of the world to gain or maintain control over the 



■'Rep. Comm. Int. Rev. for 1869, pp. xvi, xvii. 

 "Rep. Comrn. Int. Rev. for 1871, p. vi. 

 "" Op. cit., p. vii. 



