12 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



investigations, led to the approval of a subvention from the Hodgkins 

 fund for the prosecution of researches in connection with the spectral 

 relations of atmospheric air. The apparatus b}" means of which Dr. 

 Schumann has heretofore secured such noteworthy results being 

 chiefly of his own invention, he has been permitted to apply the 

 present grant to the further perfection of his instruments before enter- 

 ing upon his special experiments, which will be definitely reported 

 upon as thej^ progress. 



As referred to in my last report, in accordance with the purpose 

 of the Institution, copies of the Hodgkins prize memoir. La Vie sur 

 les hauts Plateaux^ which were obtained through the authors, Drs. 

 Herrera and Lope, have been distributed to the libraries and educa- 

 tional institutions of the country, thus making a valuable work accessi- 

 ble in widely separated localities. 



In October of last year copies of the Hodgkins medal in silver and 

 bronze were presented to Pembroke College, Oxford, England, of 

 which establishment James Smithson, the founder of the Institution, 

 was a graduate. The receipt of the medals was acknowledged in the 

 following letter from the Right Rev. Lord Bishop Mitchison, master 

 of Pembroke College, through whom the presentation was made: 



Pembroke College, Oxford, Novemher 19^ 1899. 

 Dear Dr. Langley: Yesterday your kind present of the copies of 

 the Hodgkins medal of the Smithsonian Institution came safely to 

 hand, and on behalf of myself and of the college I tender you my best 

 thanks for a beautiful and interesting gift. The medals will form a 

 suitable adjunct to the cases of books from the Institution, which 

 form, as you know, a feature in our college librarJ^ 

 Believe me to be, very faithfully, 3^ours, 



J. Mitchison. 



In order that the scope permitted by the will of the donor in 

 expending the income from the Hodgkins fund may not fail to be 

 understood by those likely to be interested in the range of researches 

 which may be thus fostered, a circular, a transcript of which follows, 

 has been recentl}' issued: 



SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 



[Presiding officer ex officio, tlic President of the United States; Chancellor, the Chief Justice of the 



United States.] 



The Hodgkins Fund. 



In October, 1891, Thomas George Hodgkins, Esq., of Setauket, 

 New York, made a donation to the Smithsonian Institution, the income 

 from a part of which was to be devoted "to the increase and ditt'usion 

 of more exact knowledge in regard to the nature and properties of 

 atmospheric air in connection with the welfare of man.'"' 



These properties may be considered in their bearing upon any or 

 all of the sciences — e. ^., not only in regard to meteorology, but in 

 connection with hygiene, or with physics, or with any department 

 whatever, either of biological or physical knowledge. 



