Abstract
THE Congress of the United States some time ago appointed a joint committee of senators and representatives to consider the organisation of the different bureaux of the Government. This special commission is now hearing the depositions of witnesses. The evidence of Major Powell, Director of the Geological Survey, has just been published. The principal feature of this document is the proposal to give the administration of the different bureaux to the Smithsonian Institution. It should be noted that the National Academy of Sciences passed some time back a resolution asking that a special administration should be created for the purpose. The Committee of the Academy recommended the establishment of a physical observatory to investigate the laws of solar and terrestrial radiation, and their application to meteorology, with such other investigations in exact science as the Government might assign to it; and they also recommended that the functions of the Bureau of Weights and Measures, now performed by the Coast Survey, be extended so as to include electrical measures.
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Notes . Nature 31, 202–203 (1885). https://doi.org/10.1038/031202a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/031202a0