July 3, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



By a law of Congress, passed in 1799, 5tli Congress, 

 2d. Session, it was ordered that "the surveyor (of 

 each port of the United States) shall, from time to 

 time, and particularly on the first Monday in January 

 and July in each year, examine and try the weights, 

 measures and other instruments used in ascertaining 

 the duties on imports, with standards to he provided 

 hy each collector, at the public expense, for that pur- 

 pose ; and when disagreements and errors are dis- 

 covered, he shall report the same to the collector, and 

 obey and execute such directions as he may receive 



for the correction thereof, agreeably to the standards 

 aforesaid." — (Statutes at Large, Vol. 1, page 643.) 



Eevised Statutes of the United States, May 19, 1828: 

 "Sec. 3548. For the purpose of securing a due 

 conformity in the weight of coins of the United States 

 to the provision of this title, the brass troy pound 

 weight procured by the Minister of the United States 

 at London, in the year eighteen hundred and twenty- 

 seven, for the use of the Mint and now in the cus- 

 tody of the Mint at Philadelphia, shall be the stand- 



