8 NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



First there is the A. D. Bache Fund. This amounts to over 

 $50,000. It was provided by the will of Alexander Dallas Bache, 

 one of the charter members, and the first President of the Acad- 

 emy, who was for many years superintendent of the United States 

 .Coast Survey. The Academy is trustee, and the income is ap- 

 plied to the prosecution of researches in physical and natural 

 sciences. 



Second, the Joseph Henry Fund. This fund of $40,000 was 

 contributed by a number of friends and admirers, as an expres- 

 sion of the donors' respect and esteem for Professor Joseph 

 Henry's personal virtues, their sense of his life's great devotion 

 to science with its results of important discoveries, and of his 

 constant labors to increase and diffuse knowledge and promote 

 the welfare of mankind. The income was to be paid to Professor 

 Henry during his life, and after his death to his wife and 

 daughters, and after the death of the last survivor, the fund is to 

 be delivered to the National Academy of Sciences; the principal 

 to be forever held intact, and the income to be from time to time 

 applied by the said National Academy of Sciences in its sole 

 discretion to assist meritorious investigators especially in the 

 direction of original research. Happily, this fund has not yet 

 come into the possession of the Academy. It is not necessary 

 to remind this audience that Professor Henry was for years the 

 Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. 



Third, the J. C. Watson Fund. This amounts to $25,000, and 

 was provided by the will of Professor J. C. Watson, a distin- 

 guished member of the Academy, who died in 1880. The 

 income shall be expended by said Academy for the promotion 

 of astronomical science. It is also provided " . . . . that the 

 Academy may if it shall seem proper provide for a gold medal 

 of the value of one hundred dollars to be awarded .... from 

 time to time, to the person in any country who shall make 

 any astronomical discovery or produce any astronomical work 

 worthy of special reward as contributing to our science." Five 

 medals have thus far been awarded, the recipients being B. A. 

 Gould, Edward Schonfeld, Arthur Auwers, Seth C. Chandler, 

 and Sir David Gill. 



