398 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1880. 



The Thomas B.Wilson Fund, the Elizabeth Phyle Stott,the Isaac 

 Barton, and Publication Funds are unchanged. Owing to cir- 

 cumstances over which the Academy has no control, the income 

 of the year from the I. Y. Williamson Librar}' Fund has been 

 somewhat diminished. But it is confidently conjectured tliat in 

 a short time it will be the same that it has been in the past. 



The financial condition of the Academy will be found detailed 

 in the Report of the Treasurer, to whom the society is much 

 indebted for the time, care and labor which he bestows in the dis- 

 charge of the duties of his office. 



Five 3'oung men have been receiving the benefit of the Jessup 

 Fund ; two for two months each, one for five, one for six, and one 

 for eiglit months during the j^ear. 



A ])rief account of the origin of this fund, and the manner of 

 its application, may interest those especially who have become 

 members of the Society within the past few years. 



Mr. Augustus E. Jessup, who became a member of the Academy 

 November, 1818, and died in Wilmington, Del., December 17th, 

 1859, gave the institution and its purposes a high place in his 

 estimation. He had expressed his intention to bestow on the 

 Academ}^ if ever able, a sum of money to constitute a perpetual 

 fund for specified purposes. His children determined that this 

 intention of their father should be realized, although he left no 

 written instructions on the subject. 



In a letter dated March 6th, 1860, and addressed to Dr. Isaac 

 Lea, then President of the Academy, the^^ stated that, in accord- 

 ance with what they believed to be the intention of their father, 

 they proposed " to pay to the Academy one hundred and twenty 

 dollars per annum to be applied to its Publication Fund ; and the 

 further sum of four hundred and eighty dollars per annum, to be 

 used for the support of one or more deserving poor 3" oung man or 

 men who may desire to devote the whole of his or their time and 

 energies to the study of the natural sciences ; and that they 

 looked forward to investing in trust, at some not distant time, the 

 principals of the sums named, for the purpose of creating a per- 

 petual fund for the above-named uses." 



Substantially these are all the instructions given to the Academy 

 for its guidance in the administration of these two funds — one to 

 be applied to its publications, and the other to the support of 

 students— aggregating six hundred dollars a year. They paid 



