burnside] the hodgkins fund 169 



ten thousand dollars being offered for a paper embodying some new 

 and important discovery in regard to the nature and properties of 

 atmospheric air, the Institution reserving the right to limit or to 

 modify the conditions of this prize should it be found necessary. 



A prize of two thousand dollars was offered for the most satis- 

 factory essay on the properties of atmospheric air and the proper 

 direction of future research in that connection, and a prize of one 

 thousand dollars for the best popular treatise on atmospheric air. 



The proposed establishment of the Hodgkins medal of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution was announced in connection with the prize com- 

 petition, it being contemplated that this medal might be awarded 

 annually, or biennially, for important contributions to the knowledge 

 of the nature and properties of atmospheric air, or for practical 

 applications of existing knowledge to the welfare of mankind. 



The conditions governing the future award of grants to specialists 

 engaged in original investigations of atmospheric air and its prop- 

 erties, were also announced, and many applications for such grants, 

 as well as memoirs in competition for the prizes, were received 

 close upon the general distribution of the circulars, which were 

 issued in English, French, and German. 



After an extension of time, decided on in the interest of all who 

 might desire to submit papers, the competition was definitely closed 

 December 31, 1894, two hundred and twenty-nine memoirs, which 

 were eligible under the advertised conditions, having been received 

 from competitors in the United States, France, Germany, England, 

 Scotland, Ireland, Italy, Russia, Austria-Hungary, Norway, Den- 

 mark, Finland, Bohemia, Bavaria, Servia, Switzerland, Spain, India, 

 Canada, Mexico, and Argentina. 



In organizing the competition, a Committee on Award was ap- 

 pointed as follows : Doctor S. P. Langley, Secretary of the Institu- 

 tion, Chairman ex- ofticio, Doctor G. Brown Goode, Assistant Secre- 

 tary of the Institution, Assistant Surgeon-General J. S. Billings, 

 U.S.A., and Professor M. W. Harrington, Chief of the United States 

 Weather Bureau. 



The Foreign Advisory Committee, as first constituted, was repre- 

 sented by Monsieur J. Janssen, .Director of the Astrophysical 

 Observatory of Meudon, Paris, Professor T. H. Huxley, F.R.S., 

 and Professor von Helmholtz, President of the Physikalisch-Tech- 

 nische Reichsanstalt, Berlin. Subsequent to the death of Doctor 

 von Helmholtz, Doctor W. von Bezold, Director of the Meteorolog- 

 ical Institute at Berlin, was added to the advisory branch of the 

 Committee. 



