51 
give the information asked for, or shall point out the best 
ways of obtaining it, the members will, at the outset, have 
returned to the government and country the boon of their 
organization as a national institution. The importance of a 
body which can thus put the Departments and Congress on 
a level with the knowledge of science of the day, and by 
disinterested advice may keep it out of the hands of schem- 
ers, and provide the methods, intelligence, and knowledge 
for experimental inquiries, will thus, in the earliest days 
of the organization, be put to a complete test. 
The subjects embraced in the references of the Depart- 
ments are as follows : — 
1. From the Treasury Department. Weights, Measures, 
and Coins, their decimalization, &c. 
2. From the Navy Department. Protection of the bot- 
toms of iron vessels from corrosion by sea-water, and from 
fouling. 
3. From the Navy Department. Correction of the com- 
passes of naval vessels, especially of iron vessels and of 
iron-clads. 
4. From the Treasury Department. Saxton’s new alco- 
holometer, intended as a substitute for the hydrometer now 
in use. 
5. From the Navy Department. Inquiry as to the expe- 
diency of continuing, in their present form, the publication, 
by the Navy Department, of the Wind and Current Charts 
and of the Sailing Directions. 
6. From the Treasury Department. Methods of protect- 
ing the national currency from being counterfeited. 
The subject of weights and measures, and of coins, is 
undoubtedly one of the most important in the uses of 
common life; and upon a right or wrong determination in 
regard to the system depends the convenience of the great 
