298 NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



observatory, " to investigate the laws of solar and terrestrial 

 radiation and their application to meteorology, with such other 

 investigations in exact science as the Government might assign 

 to it." Attention was also called to the desirability of having 

 in this department a bureau of standards, which might include 

 the Bureau of Weights and Measures. 



Should Congress consider it inadvisable to establish a new 

 Department of Science, the committee suggested that all the 

 scientific bureaus be assembled under some one of the Depart- 

 ments then existing. In case either action was taken, the Com- 

 mittee recommended that a permanent scientific commission be 

 created to direct the policy of the several bureaus, this com- 

 mission to consist of the Secretary of the Department of 

 Science, or other Department to which the bureaus should be 

 assigned (who should be president ex officio), the President of 

 the National Academy of Sciences, the Secretary of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, " tvvo civilians of high scientific reputation," 

 an officer of the Engineer Corps of the Army, a professor of 

 mathematics in the Navy, the Superintendent of the Coast and 

 Geodetic Survey, the Director of the Geological Survey, the 

 head of the meteorological bureau. 



This report was sent to the Government Commission on 

 October 16, 1884, together with certain letters of the heads of the 

 several scientific bureaus concerned. 



The more comprehensive recommendations of the committee 

 of the Academy have not been adopted by Congress up to the 

 present time. Neither a Department of Science nor a general 

 scientific commission has been established, but several of the 

 changes proposed have been made. The meteorological service, 

 formerly combined with the Signal Service of the Army, has 

 become a separate bureau under the Department of Agricul- 

 ture."' A Bureau of Standards has been established in the 

 Department of Commerce and Labor to which has been trans- 

 ferred the work of the former Bureau of Weights and Measures. 



'" The Department of Agriculture became an executive deparlmciu on February 9, 1889, 

 and the Weather Service was transferred to it on October i, 1890. 



