Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 82.djvu/622

618

There were fifty original members of the National Academy and until 1870 the membership was limited to that number. The first meeting was held at the University of the City of New York, now New York University, on April 22, 1863. The officers were: president, Alexander Dallas Bache; vice-president, James Dwight Dana; foreign secretary, Louis Agassiz; home secretary, Wolcott Gibbs; treasurer, Fairman Rogers. The academy was divided into two classes, one for mathematics and physics, of which Benjamin Peirce was chairman and Benjamin A. Gould secretary, and one for natural history, of which the elder Benjamin Silliman was chairman and J. S. Newberry secretary. It is doubtful whether the academy could now elect officers who fifty years hence would be equally distinguished.

Immediately after its organization the academy was called upon to appoint committees to advise the government, five such committees being named within a month. The first of these was on uniformity of weights, measures and coins considered in relation to international commerce. This committee ultimately reported in favor of making it lawful to use the metric system and