b4 
D, was submitted, and the resolution appended to it adopted 
by the Academy : — 
“ Resolved, That the Committee on Weights and Measures 
ask leave to continue their labors and business now in 
progress, with the power to take action.” 
The second Committee was appointed at the request of the 
Permanent Commission of the Navy Department, through 
the Chief of the Bureau of Navigation, on the highly im- 
portant practical subject of the protection of the bottoms of 
iron vessels from corrosion by salt water. 
The Committee consisted of Prof. W. Gibbs, Chairman, 
Prof. B. Silliman, Jr., Dr. John Torrey, Dr. R. E. Rogers, 
Prof. Benjamin Silliman, and Commodore John Rodgers, 
U.S.N., who, after an examination of the subject, presented 
_to the Academy a report which was adopted on the 9th of 
January. They state that the methods hitherto proposed for 
such protection depend upon one or other of the following 
principles : 
1st. Those which are designed to prevent or arrest, wholly 
or in"part, the corrosion of the metal. 
2d. Those intended to avoid the accumulation of living 
plants and animals upon the bottoms of iron ships, known 
technically as fouling. 
The remedies for these two very distinct classes of injury 
to iron vessels naturally fall under the following heads : — 
a. Those in which a metallic coating or alloy is employed, 
or those in which paints, with or without metallic oxides, are 
relied on. 
6. The use of some poisonous substance as an ingredient 
of a paint or varnish, for the specific purpose of destroying 
the life of those plants and animals, the accumulation of 
which constitutes fouling. 
These are discussed in the report which is hereto ap- 
silk ‘ Se ae eed Te ee eevee soe 
TY paee rae r aR 
