OF ARTS AND SCIENCES : AUGUST 12, 1862. 27 



The President, from the Committee appointed at the Annual 

 Meeting on the 27th o^May last, read the following Report. 



The Committee appointed to examine and report upon the adminis- 

 tration of the Rumford Fund, respectfully report: — 



The followino; letter was addressed bv Count Rumford to Hon. John 

 Adams, July 12, 1796: — 



" Sir : — 



" Desirous of contributing efficaciously to the advancement of a branch of 

 science which has long employed my attention, and which appears to me to 

 be of the highest importance to mankind ; and wishing at the same time to 

 leave a lasting testimony of my respect for the American Academy of Arts 

 and Sciences, ^ I take the liberty to request that the Academy would do me 

 the honor to accept of Five Thousand Dollars three per cent stock in the 

 funds of the United States of North America, which stock I have actually 

 purchased, and which I beg leave to transfer to the Fellows of the Academy, 

 to the end that the Interest of the same may be by them, and by their suc- 

 cessors, received from time to time, forever, and the amount of the same 

 applied, and given once every second year, as a premium to the author of the 

 most important discovery, or useful Improvement, which shall be made and 

 published by printing, or In any way made known to the public, in any part 

 of the continent of America, or In any of the American islands, during the 

 preceding two years, on Heat or on Light ; the preference always being 

 given to such discoveries as shall, in the opinion of the Academy, tend most 

 to promote the good of mankind. 



" With regard to the formalities to be observed by the Academy In their 

 decisions upon the comparative merits of those discoveries, which, in the 

 opinion of the Academy, may entitle their authors to be considered as com- 

 petitors for this biennial premium, the Academy will be pleased to adopt 

 such regulations as they in then* wisdom may judge to be proper and neces- 

 sary. But In regard to the form in which this premium is conferred, I take 

 the liberty to request that it may always be given in two medals, struck in 

 the same die ; the one of gold, and the other of silver, and of such dimen- 

 sions that both of them together may be just equal In Intrinsic value to the 

 amount of the interest of the aforesaid Five Thousand Dollars stock diu-ing 

 two years ; — that Is to say, that they may together be of the value of Three 

 Hundred Dollars. 



" The Academy will be pleased to order such device or inscription to be 

 engraved on the die they shall cause to be prepared for striking these medals, 

 as they may judge proper. 



" If during any term of two years, reckoning fi-om the last adjudication, or 

 from the last period for the adjudication of this premium by the Academy, 



