1865.] REVIEW — YOUMANS ON FORCE. 155 



h ea t fj — radiation, conduction, and convection. He determined the 

 almost perfect non-conducting properties of liquids, investigated 

 the production of light, and invented a mode of measuring it. He 

 was the first to apply steam generally to the warming of fluids and 

 to the culinary art ; he experimented upon the use of gunpowder, 

 the strength of materials, and the maximum density of water, and 

 made many valuable and original observations upon an extensive 

 range of subjects. 



" Prof. James D. Forbes, in his able Dissertation on the recent 

 Progress of the Mathematical and Physical Sciences, in the last 

 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, gives a full account of 

 Rumford's contributions to science, and remarks : 



' All of Rumford's experiments were made with admirable pre- 

 cision, and recorded with elaborate fidelity, and in the plainest 

 language. Every thing with him was reduced to weight and 

 measure, and no pains were spared to attain the best results. 



I Rumford's name will be ever connected with the progress of 

 science in England by two circumstances ; first, by the foundation 

 of a perpetual medal and prize in the gift of the council of the 

 Royal Society of London, for the reward of discoveries connected 

 with heat and light ; and secondly, by the establishment in 1800 

 of the Royal Institution in London, destined primarily for the 

 promotion of original discovery, and secondarily for the diffusion 

 of a taste for science among the educated classes. The plan was 

 conceived with the sagacity which characterized Rumford, and its 

 success has been greater than could have been anticipated. Davy 

 was there brought into notice by Rumford himself, and furnished 

 with the means of prosecuting his admirable experiments. He 

 and Mr. Faraday have given to that institution its just celebrity, 

 with little intermission, for half a century.' 



II Leaving England, Rumford took up his residence in France, 

 and the estimation in which he was held may be judged of by the 

 fact that he was elected one of the eight foreign associates of the 

 Academy of Sciences. 



" Count Rumford bequeathed to Harvard University the funds 

 for endowing its professorship of the Application of Science to the 

 Art of Living, and instituted a prize to be awarded by the Ameri- 

 can Academy of Sciences for the most important discoveries and 

 improvements relating to heat and light. In 1804 he married the 

 widow of the celebrated chemist Lavoisier, and with her retired to 

 the villa of Auteuil, the residence of her former husband, where he 

 died in 1814. 



