BEQUEST OF COUNT RUMFOKD. 



The following letter was addressed by Count Eumfoid to Hon. John Adams, July 12, 1796 : — 



"Sir: — 



"Desirous of contributing efficaciously to the advancement of a branch of science wliich has long 

 employed my attention, ami wliich appears to me to be of the highest importance to mankind ; and wishing 

 at the same time to leave a lasting testimony of my respect for the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, — 

 I take the liberty to request that the Academy would do me the honor to accept of Five Thousand Dollars 

 three per cent stock in the funds of the United States of North America, which stock I have actually pur- 

 chased, and which I beg leave to transfer to the Fellows of the Academy, to the end that the interest of the 

 same may be by them, and by their successors, received from time to time, forever, and the amount of the 

 same applied, and given once every second year, as a premium to the author of the most important discovery, 

 or useful improvement, which shall be made and published by printing, or in any way made known to the 

 public, in any part of the continent of America, or in any of the American islands, during the preceding two 

 years, on Heat or on Light ; the preference always being given to such discoveries as shall, in the opinion of 

 the Academy, tend most to promote the good of mankind. 



" With regard to the formalities to be observed by the Academy in their decisions upon the comparative 

 merits of those discoveries, which, in the opinion of the Academy, may entitle their authors to be considered 

 as competitors for this biennial premium, the Academy wiU be pleased to adopt such regulations as they in 

 their wisdom may judge to be proper and necessary. But in regard to the form in which this premium is 

 conferred, I take the liberty to request that it may always be given in two medals, struck in the same die ; 

 the one of gold, and the other of silver, and of such dimensions that both of them together may be just equal 

 in intrinsic value to the amount of the interest of the aforesaid Five Thousand Dollars stock during two 

 years ; — that is to say, that they may together be of the value of Three Hundred Dollars. 



" The Academy wUl be pleased to order such device or inscription, to be engraved on the die they shall 

 cause to be prepared for striking these medals, as they may judge proper. 



" If during any term of two years, reckoning from the last adjudication, or from the last period for the 

 adjudication of this premium by the Academy, no new discovery or improvement should be made, in any part 

 of America, relative to either of the subjects in question (Heat or Light), which in the opinion of the Academy 

 shall be of sufficient importance to deserve this premium, in that case it is my desire that the premium may 

 not be given, but that the value of it may be reserved, and, being laid out in the purchase of additional stock 



