A FITTING RECOGNITION OF AMERICAN SCIENCE. 293 



action of light, supported in a great measure by his own experiments, 

 and proving conclusively, and, as we believe, for the first time, that 

 rays of all wave-lengths are capable of producing chemical changes, 

 and that too little account has hitherto been taken of the nature of the 

 substance in which the decomposition is produced. 



10. Finally, Dr. Draper has recently published researches on the 

 distribution of heat in the spectrum, which are of the highest interest, 

 and which have largely contributed to the advancement of our knowl- 

 edge of the subject of radiant energy. 



And now, in the absence of "Dr. Draper, unable at this inclement 

 season to execute a fatiguing journey, it gives me pleasure to recog- 

 nize you, Mr. Quincy, as his worthy and competent representative. 



I pray you, in receiving these two medals on his behalf, in accord- 

 ance with the terms of. the original trust, to assure him, on the part 

 of the Academy, of the high satisfaction taken by all its Fellows in 

 doing honor to those who, like him, take a prominent rank in the ad- 

 vance of science throughout the world. 



Mr. Quincy, on receiving the medals, said : 



Mr. President : In the name and on the behalf of Dr. Draper I 

 have the honor to receive the Rumford medals in gold and silver, 

 which the Academy has been pleased to award to him, and I will 

 have them safely conveyed to him to-morrow, together with the assur- 

 ances of the satisfaction of the Academy in this action which you wish 

 me to communicate to him. In common with yourself, sir, and all the 

 Fellows present, I regret that that eminent person is unable to attend 

 this meeting and receive the medals himself. And, personally, I re- 

 gret the absence of Dr. Wolcott Gibbs, who had promised to perform 

 this grateful service for his friend, and who would have been able to 

 make a more suitable reply to the able discourse with which you have 

 accompanied the presentation of the medals, and to have done more 

 justice to the claims of Dr. Draper to this distinction than I can pre- 

 tend to do. Dr. Gibbs having also been unavoidably prevented from 

 being present this evening, I have now the honor to read a communi- 

 cation from Dr. Draper to the Academy, in acknowledgment of this 

 testimony to his services to science. 



Mr. Quincy then read the following letter : 



To the American Academy of Arts and Sciences : Your favorable ap- 

 preciation of my researches on radiations, expressed to-day by the award of 

 the Rumford medals, the highest testimonial of approbation that American sci- 

 ence has to bestow on those who have devoted themselves to the enlargement 

 of knowledge, is to me a most acceptable return for the attention I have given 

 to that subject through a period of more than forty years, and I deeply regret 

 that through ill-health I am unable to receive it in person. 



Sir David Brewster, to whom science is under so many obligations for the 

 discoveries he made, once said to me that the solar-spectrum is a world in itself, 

 and that the study of it will never be completed. His remark is perfectly just. 



But the spectrum is only a single manifestation of that infinite ether which 



