to authorize its use in the postoffice and this recommendation was enacted into law by the congress. Other committees, as on protecting the bottoms of iron vessels and on magnetic deviation of iron ships, were directly concerned with the conduct of the civil war. As the scientific bureaus of the government developed there became loss need of committees of the academy for investigation, and, as the president pointed out in his introductory address at the recent celebration, the government has in recent years but rarely called on the academy for its advice. The last time the academy acted was in pursuance of a request by the congress in 1908 to report on the methods and expenses of conducting the scientific work under the government, but the recommendations of this committee appear to have been ignored. There is reason to believe that while committees for conducting scientific experiments are no longer needful, the disinterested advice of a body such as the National Academy in the selection of the heads of the scientific bureaus under the government and the conduct of their work may be recognized. The officers elected
