The National Academy of Sciences’ Committee on the Question of Tests for the Purity of Whiskey

[The following narrative is taken from Frederick W. True’s Semi-centennial history of the National Academy of Sciences, A History of the First Half-Century of the National Academy of Sciences 1863-1913, pp. 225-230

This committee, appointed to consider a subject which within the last few years has been repeatedly forced on the attention of the Government, was appointed on January 14, 1864, at the request of the Acting Surgeon General of the Army received on the fifth of that month, and consisted of Benjamin Silliman, Jr. (chairman), John Torrey, R. E. Rogers, J.L. LeConte and J.H. Alexander. On March 17, the committee asked for and obtained the use of the sum of $3,500 to be used in experimentation, but later decided that no expenditure of money was necessary.