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after that date, in all new lighthouses and all lighthouses 
requiring illuminating apparatus, the lens or Fresnel sys- 
tem should be adopted. 
Another chapter of the same act provided for the appoint- 
ment of a commission to be composed of two officers of en- 
gineers of the army, and such civil officers of high scientific 
attainments as might be under the orders or, at the disposi- 
tion of the treasury department and a junior officer of the 
navy as secretary, whose duty it should be to inquire into 
the condition of the lighthouse establishment of the United 
States, and to make a general detailed:report and programme 
to guide legislation in extending and improving our present 
system of construction, illumination, inspection, and super- 
intendence. 
The board, as constituted by the President, consisted of 
Commander W. B. Shubrick, General J. G. Totten, Colonel 
James Kearney, Captain S. F. Dupont, U. S. N., Professor 
A. Dallas Bache, Superintendent U. S. Coast Survey, and 
Thornton A Jenkins, U. S. N., as Secretary. 
Its labors were directed first to demonstrating the evils, 
irregularities, and abuses which had crept into the lighthouse 
service under the management of the Fifth Auditor elute 
Treasury, (the late venerable and highly respected Stephen 
Pleasonton,) among which were found to be those arising 
™ defective principles of construction, renovalion, - 
repair of: lighthouses, inadequate protection to sites and 
badly planned and poorly constructed sea-walls. oe seed 
Teadily be understood how the peculiarly practical a“ of 
General Totten, brought to bear upon these and 
Subjects of inquiry, developed and demonstrated the neces- 
sity of at once employing proper scientific sy: — and plans 
of construction. His assistance in collecting data was found 
invaluable, and his jucid, clear mind was equally to be trusted 
in detecting faults and in devising the remedy- 
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