126 COUNT RUMFOKD. 



and to the Honourable John Adams, then President of 

 the American Academy, are identical in terms. For a 

 long series of years the American Academy did not con- 

 sider that the candidates for the medal had reached the 

 level of merit which would justify its award. No award 

 was therefore made; and in 1829 the Rumford bequest 

 had increased from five thousand to twenty thousand 

 dollars. After some litigation the terms of the bequest 

 were extended to embrace applications of it far beyond 

 the design of the testator. Permission was obtained to 

 apply the fund to the publication of books, or methods 

 of discovery, bearing on the Count's favourite subjects 

 of experiment; and to the aid and reward of scientific 

 workers. Thus, in 1839, Dr. Hare, of Philadelphia, re- 

 ceived from the Academy six hundred dollars for his 

 invention of the compound blow-pipe, and his improve- 

 ments in galvanic apparatus. In 1862 the Eumford 

 medal was awarded to Mr. John B. Ericsson, for his 

 caloric engine; while Mr. Alvan Clark, so celebrated 

 for his improvements of the refracting telescope, and 

 the eminent Dr. John Draper, of the University of New 

 York, have been also numbered among the recipients. 



Accompanied by his daughter, Rumford returned to 

 Germany in 1796. "Three weeks' constant travel; 

 circuitous routes to avoid troops, bad roads, still worse 

 accommodations passing nights in the carriages for the 

 want of an inn scantiness of provisions, joined with 

 great fatigue, rendered our journey by no means agree- 

 able." At Munich they were lodged in the splendid 

 house allotted to the Count. France and Austria were 

 then at war, while Bavaria sought to remain rigidly 

 neutral. Eight days after Rumford's arrival, the Elector 

 took refuge in Saxony. Moreau had crossed the Rhine 

 and threatened Bavaria. After a defeat by the French, 



