4 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. IV. No. 79. 



subjects of ' Coinage, Weights and Meas- 

 ures,' he sought the creation of a separate 

 committee, which should be exclusively 

 charged with the consideration of these 

 subjects and obtained from the House an 

 order to that effect. Of this important 

 committee, Mr. Kasson was made Chair- 

 man, and, beginning as it did, it has, dur- 

 ing the thirty years of its existence as a 

 standing committee of Congress, generally 

 been favorable to metrological progress. 

 During the next two or three years Mr. 

 Kasson made an exhaustive study of the 

 subject and did much to concentrate the 

 growing interest in the Metric System and 

 to guide the activity of various scientific 

 bodies, commercial organizations, etc. In 

 a private letter referring to this very im- 

 portant period in the history of legislation 

 relating to standards, he speaks in highest 

 praise of the invaluable assistance rendered 

 by our Associate, Professor H. A. Newton, 

 of Yale University, to whom was committed 

 the task of preparing the tables of relation 

 and conversion which accompanied the re- 

 port of the committee and which form a 

 part of the statute. In January, 1866, the 

 Committee of the Academy on Coinage 

 Weights and Measures made its report, and 

 on May 17th Mr. Kasson submitted to Con- 

 gress the report of the committee of the 

 House of Representatives, unanimously rec- 

 ommending accompanying bills and resolu- 

 tions, which, with a single exception, after- 

 ward were enacted into laws, and on July 

 28, 1866, the use of the Metric System was 

 legalized by Act of Congress for the whole 

 United States, being then and for many 

 years the only system of weights and meas- 

 ures having the authority of National leg- 

 islation. In the passage of this bill through 

 the House, Mr. Kasson feared opposition, 

 due, as he says, ' to the love of talk,' and to 

 avoid furnishing a text for debate he tact- 

 fully declined to make a speech in favor of 

 the passage of the bills and resolutions, 



simply offering to answer any questions 

 which might be asked. His policy was suc- 

 cessful, and the proposed Act being only 

 permissive and not obligatory in character, 

 the whole matter was disposed of favorably 

 in an hour or two. In the Senate the bill 

 was referred to a special committee, of 

 which Charles Sumner, who took a lively 

 interest in the matter, was chairman. 

 Sumner was generally eager to lead in re- 

 forms of this kind, and after mastering the 

 material which was put into his hand he 

 prepared an elaborate and scholarly speech 

 in favor of the measure, which, however, 

 he refrained from delivering, it is believed, 

 on the advice and suggestion of Mr. Kas- 

 son. In this speech, which was afterwards 

 printed, in a manner which was somewhat 

 characteristic of the great champion of hu- 

 man liberty and the rights of man, he ig- 

 nored in a great measure the work of the 

 House Committee on Weights and Meas- 

 ures, if not, indeed, the action of the 

 House, and was lauded by a portion of the 

 public press as the successful first cham- 

 pion of this very important step towards a 

 more advanced civilization. I have gone 

 into these details concerning the Act of 1866 

 because of the real moment and significance 

 of that Act. Although it produced little if 

 any immediate effect in the way of a begin- 

 ning in the actual use of the system, the at- 

 tention of the general public was at once 

 turned to it. Nearly all text-books on 

 arithmetic published since that date have 

 included a treatment of the Metric System, 

 and instruction in its use has been given in 

 thousands of schools throughout the coun- 

 try, thus, in a measure, preparing the way 

 for its final exclusive use. In science quite 

 universally, and in many arts, trades and 

 professions, it has come into general use, to 

 the end that at this moment most intelli- 

 gent people know something of it. For this 

 there is little doubt that we are largely in- 

 debted to the Act of 1866 and the agitation 



