636 ENDOWMENT FOR SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH. 



|. 



the Jessup Fund for students m science, on which the income is about 

 $550 yearly. The Philosophical Society from time to time awards the 

 prize established by John Hyacinth de Magellan in 1780, an oval gold 

 plate, "for the most useful discovery or invention in navigation or 

 science." One of the earliest awards of this prize was for painting 

 lightning rods with black lead. 



The American Academy of Arts and Sciences awards a gold and 

 silver medal from a bequest of $5,000, made to it by Count Rumford, 

 who in 1796 made a similar bequest to the Royal Society. In 1888 this 

 prize was most worthily awarded to Prof. Michelson for his researches 

 in light.* 



The Boston Society of Natural History has a general fund, of which 

 the income is al)out $0,000. It has also a small Walker prize fund 

 and a grand prize fund, from which in 1881 it awarded a grand prize 

 of $1,000 to James Hall, of Albany, ''for his distinguished services to 

 science." It also administers the expenditure of about $2,700 a year 

 for instruction in laboratory work, drawn from the Boston University, 

 and $1,500 from the Lowell fund for the instruction of teacliers.t 



From this comparison of the voluntary associations, it ap])ears that 

 the property, endowed funds, and equipment of the English societies 

 named are nearly tenfold greater than the American, and their i)ubli- 

 cations double; while for direct original research, our societies main- 

 tain no laboratories and no i>rofessors, as is done by the Royal Institu- 

 tion. The English societies distribute yearly from $25,000 to $30,000 

 for from sixty to seventy-live di&'erent scientitic purposes, while ours 

 make no such- appropriations, simply because they have no funds. To 

 supply this deficiency there is need of large endowments. 



The publications of our societies are valuable; the papers have often 

 been of a high character, rivaling those published abroad. But the 

 funds availalde for publication are insufficient; it is always a question 

 of means. There are a press and surplus of valuable scientific matter, 

 which either is not printed at all, or only gets printed by si^ecial sub- 

 scriptions for the purpose. This ought not to be. After valuable 

 original matter has been produced with great pains and without hope 

 of pecuniary reward, nothing is more discouraging to future research 

 than that even publication can only be had as a charity. This I know, 

 from repeated personal applications, is the condition of things in New 

 York at this moment. It is not creditable that in a State and country 

 like ours there should be practically nowhere adequate provision for 

 even the publication of the researches of those who work for nothing 

 but their love of science and its progress. There is very great need of 

 a considerable publication fund, in the hands of some scientitic body, 

 through which every valuable contribution to science, not otherwise 

 provided for, might be ensured a speedy publication, after it has been 



*Pres. Loveriug's Address, rrocecdiutjs, vol. xxiv, p. 380. 

 t Proceedings, vol. xxiv, p, 14. 



