49 
laws presented to their discussion, divided into Classes and 
Sections for the consideration of matters of science, elected 
officers, (see list marked B,) and adjourned to a stated day, 
the 4th of January, and to Washington, the National Capital, 
with which they were henceforth to be connected in their ; 
membership of the National Academy of Sciences, 
The first trial of the working of the Academy was to be 
made, and the first effort was to be through the action of a 
Committee on Weights and Measures, for the appointment 
of which, to consider the subject of the “Uniformity of 
Weights, Measures, and Coins, considered in relation to 
domestic and international commerce,” the Academy had 
been addressed before its adjournment by the Hon. Secretary 
of the Treasury, S. P. Chase. 
It was obvious that the only effective and prompt mode of 
action by members scattered over the United States, as were 
the fifty named in the charter, must be through committees. 
Action must originate with committees, and be perfected by 
discussion in the general meetings of the Academy, or in the 
classes or sections. Decisions to be finally pronounced by 
the entire body. 
To avoid delay in reports which might be desired by the 
government to be promptly furnished, the President of the 
Academy was authorized to transmit such reports on their 
reception. It has not appeared to me, except, perhaps, in 
one ease, and in that the conclusions of the Committee had 
not reached me, that there was occasion to present the reports 
until they had been discussed in the Academy itself, and the 
views had been adopted; especially as this waS, as I have 
said before, a first trial of the working of our organization. 
One of the committees thus acting has been able to meet so 
often, and with so many members at a meeting, as to show 
that in iSeries cord where consultation and discussion 
MYISSOUR 
ae 
ARD 
