COMMITTEES ON BEHALF OF THE GOVERNMENT 297 



The questions which the committee was requested to consider 

 were as follows : 



" First. What is the organization of the government surveys, and of the 

 signal service, in the chief countries of Europe, and could any part of this organi- 

 zation be advantageously adopted in this country? 



"Secondly. In what way can the scientific branches above referred to be best 

 co-ordinated ? 



" Thirdly. What changes in, or additions to, these branches are desirable? " "" 



The report of the committee was submitted on September 24, 

 1884, ^nd with the appendices, covers 3c pages. To the first 

 inquiry propounded by the Joint Commission the committee 

 replied that in its opinion the efficiency of the surveys of the 

 United States would not be increased by adopting any form of 

 organization existing in Europe, but that a more extended use 

 of photography and zincography might prove economical in the 

 production of maps and charts. It then called attention to a 

 previous recommendation of the Academy that the Coast Survey 

 be transferred to the Department of the Interior and that its 

 work be extended to include topographic land surveys. The 

 committee recommended that the Weather Bureau be separated 

 from the Signal Service of the War Department and placed un- 

 der the control of a scientific commission. No immediate change 

 in the scope of the Hydrographic Office was recommended, 

 but it was suggested that when the original survey of the coast 

 should be finished, the work of re-sounding, re-examining, etc., 

 might perhaps be advantageously committed to the Navy De- 

 partment. Having given attention to these particulars, the com- 

 mittee then pronounced its conviction that a proper coordination 

 of the scientific work of the Government would be most satis- 

 factorily effected by the establishment of a Department of 

 Science. It was proposed that this Department should include 

 the Coast and Geodetic Survey under the name of the Coast and 

 Interior Survey; the Geological Survey, unchanged; a Meteor- 

 ological Bureau, to which should be transferred the main portion 

 of the meteorological work of the Signal Service; and a physical 



'"Rep. Nat. Acad. Sci. for 1884, p. 35. 



