ANNALS OF THE ACADEMY gI 
Not only was the importance of the investigation per se in- 
sisted upon, but it was considered that it would stimulate an 
interest in chemical research among the rising generation of 
students of that branch of science, particularly, because it offered 
a wide field for individual ingenuity and initiative, while at 
the same time it did not demand the most costly and extensive 
facilities, or the most finished training. The scheme was re- 
ferred by the Academy to a committee which reported favorably 
upon it, and the report was adopted by the Academy. 
The committee was continued, and in accordance with the 
approval of the Academy, associated with itself Dr. G. N. Lewis 
of Boston, who had given much attention personally to the 
problems of chemical reactions. At the November meeting, 
1907, this committee reported that it had prepared a circular 
letter to heads of departments and to research workers in educa- 
tional establishments, outlining the plan of research, and asked 
the Academy to approve its distribution. This was granted and 
the letter was accordingly circulated. Besides stating the 
problem and asking coéperation in its solution, the letter men- 
tioned three pamphlets bearing on the subject which had been 
prepared, by the committee containing a summary of the 
problem, the best means of attacking it and a résumé of the 
condition of knowledge regarding it. These were entitled 
respectively, “ The Maximum Work Producible by Chemical 
Reactions,” “ The Principles of Energetics and their Application 
to Chemical and Physico-chemical Changes,” and “The Free 
Energy of Chemical Compounds.” 
The list of trust funds of the Academy, already a long one, 
received an important addition in November, 1907, when Gen- 
eral Cyrus B. Comstock, Director of the Geodetic Survey of the 
Northern and Northwestern Lakes and President of the 
Mississippi River Commission, presented the sum of $10,000 
“to advance knowledge in electricity, magnetism, and radiant 
energy, by the giving of money prizes for important investi- 
gations or discoveries in those subjects.” It was General Com- 
stock’s wish that the principal of the fund should be maintained 
