COMMITTEES ON BEHALF OF THE GOVERNMENT 245 



New York. Early in 1867 General Meigs was obliged to with- 

 draw from the committee on account of ill health. He was re- 

 placed by L. M. Rutherfurd, who in turn was prevented by sick- 

 ness from taking an active part in the work of the committee. The 

 labors of 1867 fell, therefore, entirely upon Henry and Hilgard. 



No sooner had the adoption of the Tice spirit meter been 

 decided upon than difficulties began to arise regarding it. The 

 manufacturer, through sickness and unforeseen mechanical 

 difficulties, failed to deliver the meters as promptly as agreed 

 upon, and he also claimed that on account of the small number 

 ordered the cost of manufacturing them was necessarily greater. 

 The Treasury Department thereupon increased the order to 100 

 meters. As already mentioned, a number of these instruments 

 were attached to distilleries in New York late in 1867 and early 

 in 1868. They had scarcely been put into operation than a storm 

 of opposition arose from the distillers, and on February 3, 1868, 

 a joint resolution of Congress was approved appointing a com- 

 mission of five persons who, in connection with the committee 

 of the Academy, should again immediately examine all meters 

 presented to them for consideration and report to Congress in 

 detail the results of their examination, together with such recom- 

 mendations as would in their opinion promote the interests of 

 the Government. The resolution also directed that all work on 

 the construction of meters under direction of the Treasury De- 

 partment should be suspended until the report was submitted, 

 and that no further contract for such instruments should be made 

 under the act of March 2, i867. 56 



The introduction of this resolution led to an extended and 

 acrimonius discussion in both houses of Congress, a discussion 

 which took a wide range and even involved the question of the 

 integrity of the highest officers of the Government. Those who 

 opposed the measure did so on the ground that no form of meter 

 would protect the Government from fraud, or that scientific 

 men were not qualified to pronounce on the practical utility of 



"See Stat. at Large, vol. 15, 1869, pp. 246, 247, 4oth Congress, 2d Session, Res. no. 9. 



