REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 13 



With the intent of furthering the donor's known wishes, the Insti- 

 tution hiis already given considerable money prizes for treatises em- 

 bodying new and important discoveries in regard to the nature or 

 properties of air. This form of encouragement will not at present be 

 renewed. 



A gold medal has been established under the name of the " Hodg- 

 kins Medal of the Smithsonian Institution," which will be awarded 

 annually or biennially for important contributions to our knowledge 

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

 cations of our existing knowledge of them to the welfare of mankind, 

 and grants of money are made from time to time to specialists engaged 

 in original investigations which involve the study of the properties of 

 atmospheric air. 



These properties may be understood in the widest sense of the word. 

 Thus the physicist may consider them in an investigation which 

 involves the study, for instance, of atmospheric electricity, or of the 

 absorptive powers of the air, or of the atmospheric lines in the spec- 

 trum; the hygienist may be assisted in researches in this connection 

 looking to the promotion of health; or even the geologist, in a study 

 which connects the earth's crust with the absorption of the constitu- 

 ents of the atmosphere in past or coming time. Thus the Hodgkins 

 Fund may be considered to cover in effect something belonging to 

 nearly every division of the applied sciences. 



It l)eing the desire of the Institution to give the widest extension to 

 the great purpose of the founder of this fund, and to prevent any mis- 

 apprehension of his Avishes, it is repeated, then, that the discoveries or 

 applications proper to be brought to the consideration of the Institu- 

 tion may be in the field of any department of science without restric- 

 tion, provided only that they have to do with "the nature and proper- 

 ties of atmospheric air in connection with the welfare of man.'* 



The following conditions are imposed with a view to obtaining the 

 fullest possible benefit to science from grants made from the fund: 



1. Applications for grants should have the endorsement of some rec- 

 ognized academy of sciences, or other institution of learning, and 

 should be accompanied by evidences of the capacity of the applicant, 

 in the form of at least one memoir already publifched by him, based 

 upon original investigation. 



2. The purchase of necessary laboratory appliances for the particular 

 research in view is authorized, and in special cases on explanation b}' 

 the applicant, the payment of the salaries of assistants in prosecuting 

 such research; but the defrajauent of the purely personal expenses of 

 the grantee is not intended to be provided from monej^s advanced from 

 the Fund. 



3. Upon the conclusion of a research, it is expected that any special 

 piece or pieces of apparatus purchased from a grant from the Fund 

 will ])e returned to the Smithsonian Institution. 



•i. Should investigations for which a grant has been made be of con- 

 siderable duration, a summary of progress should be submitted to the 

 Institution at the end of six months, as well as a subsequent report in 

 which the results of such investigations may be recorded. 



5. The Institution does not claim an}^ legal property in a research 

 promoted by its aid, but it expects to make the first publication of the 

 results obtained, if it desire to do so. If this can not be done without 

 dela}^, and if the results seem to require it, the Institution has, when 



