Bivrker.] ^^t) [Bee. 1, 



is 46 millimeters in diameter. It has the representation of a siderostat in 

 relief upon the obverse, with the motto: "Famam extendere factis, 

 hoc virtutis opus." On the reverse is inscribed the words: "Veneris 

 in sole spectaudse curatores R. P. F. S. Henrico Draper, M. D., Dec. 

 Vin, MDUCCLXXIV;" with the motto : " Decori decus addit avito." 



Professor Draper was appointed, in 1861, Surgeon of the Twelfth Regi- 

 ment of New York Volunteers ; a position which he accepted and in 

 which he served with credit. In 1876, he was made one of the Judges in 

 the Photographic Section of the Centennial Exhibition. In 1875, he was 

 elected a member of the Astronomische Gesellschaft. In 1877, he re- 

 ceived an election to the National Academy of Sciences ; and in the same 

 year he was made a member of the American Philosophical Society. In 

 1879, he was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Ad- 

 vancement of Science. In 1881, the American Academy of Arts and Sci- 

 ences worthily enrolled him among its members. In 1883, the University 

 of Wisconsin and the University of New York conferred on him, almost 

 simultaneously, the degree of LL.D. 



For several years it had been Dr. Draper's custom to join his friends. 

 Generals Marcy and Whipple, of the Army, in the early fall, for a few 

 weeks' hunting in the Rocky mountains. In 1882, the party left New 

 York on the 31st of August, went by rail to Rock creek, on the Union Pa- 

 cific Railway, and from there went north in the saddle ; reaching Fort Cus- 

 ter, on the Northern Pacific Railway, near the middle of October. Dur- 

 ing the two months of their absence the party rode fifteen hundred miles on 

 horseback, as Dr. Draper estimated. When above timber line early in 

 October, they encountered a blinding snow storm with intense cold and 

 were obliged to camp without shelter. Dr. Draper reached New York on 

 the 25th of October. Ordinarily, he returned refreshed and invigorated 

 with the splendid exercise of the trip ; but this year the distance traveled 

 seemed to have been too great, and this, together with the hardships en- 

 countered, seemed to have wearied him. Pressure of delayed business 

 awaited him and occupied his time at once. Moreover, the National Acad- 

 emy was to meet in New York in November ; and he was to entertain 

 them as he had always done. This year the entertainment was 1o take the 

 form of a dinner. In order to offer them scientific novelty, he determined 

 to light the table with the Edison incandescent light, the current being 

 furnished from the machine in his laboratory. But the source of power being 

 a gas engine, and therefore intermittent, a disagreeable pulsation was ob- 

 servable in the light. To obviate this he contrived an ingenious attach- 

 ment to the engine whereby at the instant at which the speed was accel- 

 erated by the explosion of the gas in the cylinder, a lateral or shunt circuit 

 should be automatically thrown in, the resistance of which could be va- 

 ried at pleasure. With his admirable mechanical skill he extemporized the 

 device from materials at hand and found it to work perfectly. The dinner 

 was given on the evening of November 15th, and was one of the most 

 brilliant ever given in New York ; about forty academicians, together 



