388 STATUTES OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

 On Literary Performances. 



1. The Academy will never express its judgment on literaiy or scientific memoirs or performances 

 submitted to' it, or included in its printed transactions. 



2. A committee of three persons, to be called the Committee on Publications, shall be chosen at 

 each annual meeting, and to them all memoirs submitted to the Academy shall be referred. 



CHAPTER IX. 



On Amendments of the Statutes. 



All proposed alterations or additions to the statutes shall be referred to a committee during the in- 

 terval between two statute meetings, and shall require for enactment a majority of two thirds of the 

 members present, and at least eighteen affirmative votes. 



RUMFORD PREMIUM. 



In conformity with the last will of Benjamin Count Rumford, granting a certain fund to the 

 American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and of a decree of the Supreme Judicial Court for carrying 

 into effect the general charitable intent and purpose of Count Rumford, as expressed in his said will, 

 the Academy is empowered to make from the income of said fund, as it now exists, at any annual 

 meeting, an award of a gold and silver medal, being together of the intrinsic value of three hundred dol- 

 lars, as a premium, to the author of any important discovery or useful improvement on light or on heat, 

 which shall have been made and published by printing, or in any way made known to the public, in any 

 part of the continent of America, or any of the American islands ; preference being always given to 

 such discoveries as shall, in the opinion of the Academy, tend most to promote the good of mankind ; 

 and to add to such medals, as a further premium for such discoveries and improvement, if the Academy 

 see fit so to do, a sum of money not exceeding three hundred dollars. 



For this purpose, a standing committee is appointed annually by the Academy, in May, to consider 

 and report on all applications for the Rumford Premium. 



