214 



THE MUSEUM. 



Marsh, of the Peabody Museum of 

 New Haven, were elected new mem- 

 bkrs of the council. 



Interest was not only confined to 

 the election of new officers, for it ex- 

 tended to the new members were 

 chosen. Notwithstanding the number 

 of vacancies, never more than five 

 new members are chosen to the Acad- 

 emy at one time, and members can 

 only be elected at the stated meeting. 

 No candidates have been chosen since 

 1892, but this year four were 

 agreed upon. They were: William 

 L. Elkin, of the astronomical depart- 

 ment of Yale University; Charles S. 

 Sargent, who fills the chair of arbori- 

 culture in Harvard University, Cam- 

 bridge. William A. Welch, of the 

 Johns Hopkins University, whose re- 

 cent researches in biology have been 

 so valuable, especially in the direct- 

 ion of determining with exactness the 

 presence of rabies in persons bitten by 

 animals afflicted with hydrophobia; 

 and Charles O. Whitman, whose re- 

 searches in marine life have resulted 

 in his recent appointment to the Uni- 

 versity of Chicago. 



Besides the home members, three 

 foreign associates were chosen. They 

 were Prof. Rudolph Lenckart, who 

 for so many years has been in charge 

 of the Zoological Institute in Leipsic, 

 Germany; Prof. Sophus Jie, the 

 famous Norwegian astronomer, who 

 now fills the chair of that science in 

 Leipsic; and Prof. Julius von Sachs, 

 the director of the Botanical Gardens 

 in Wurzburg, Bavaria. It is perhaps 

 well to add that foreign membership 

 is likewise restricted, and there are 

 never more than fifty foreign mem- 

 bers. 



The Academy has also a substantial 



way of honoring scientists, for it is the 

 custodian of several trust funds, from 

 the interest of which gold medals are 

 awarded from time to time for dis- 

 coveries or advances made in special 

 branches of science. Conspicuous 

 among these is the Watson medal, de- 

 rived from a fund of $13,000 left 

 some years ago to the Academy by 

 James C. Watson, from the interest 

 of which "a medal is to be prepared 

 to be awarded to the person in any 

 country who shall make any astro- 

 nomical discovery or produce any 

 astronomical work worthy of special 

 reward and contributing to the pro- 

 gress of astronomy." Four times has 

 this medal been given: first to Ben- 

 jamin A. Gould in 1887; then to Ed- 

 ward Schoenfeld, of the University of 

 Bonn; then to Arthur Auwers, of Ber- 

 lin, and last year it was awarded to 

 Seth C. Chandler, of Cambridge, 

 Mass. , for his researches on the varia- 

 tions of latitude and the variable stars. 

 The public presentation of the medal 

 "took place in Washington this year. 

 The medal is accompanied by a gold 

 purse of $100. 



A medal resulting from a fund left 

 to the Academy by Frederick A. P. 

 Barnard, who for so many years was 

 president of Columbia College, val- 

 ued at $200 and known as the "Bar- 

 nard Medal for Meritorious Service to 

 Science," a copy of which is to be 

 presented at the end of "every five 

 years to the person who during that 

 period, shall have made such discov- 

 ery in physical or astronomical sci- 

 ence, or such novel application of sci- 

 ence to purposes beneficial to the hu 

 man race, as shall be deemed the 

 most worthy of such honor," is also at 

 the disposal of the Academy. The 



