488 Additional Notes, 



porated May 3, 1780. The first meeting was on the 30th 

 of the same month. The late Governor Bowdoin was 

 elected President; and was annually re-elected until his death, 

 which happened November 6, 1790. In May, 1791, the 

 Hon. John Adams, LL. D. was elected President, and has 

 been annually re-elected since, in the year 1785 the Aca- 

 demy published a volume of their Transactions in quarto. 

 The preface to this volume, the incorporating act, and sta- 

 tutes of the Academy, together with Mr. Bowdoin's inau- 

 gural address, which it contains, will give full information of 

 the nature and objects of the society, and of its situation at 

 that time. Though the volume is intrinsically valuable and 

 well executed, and was offered for sale at the moderate price 

 of sixteen shillings, yet it had a very limited sale, and the 

 publication involved the Academy in a debt, which occa- 

 sioned no small embarrassment. The first part of a second 

 volume was, however, published in 1793, and a sufficient 

 number of papers have been some time past selected to com- 

 plete the volume. It will soon be published. 



" The present funds amount to about 7300 dollars, vested in 

 different descriptions of stocks. Five thousand dollars of this 

 sum arises from a donation made by Count Rum ford in 1 796 : 

 the interest of which is, by the terms of the donation, to be 

 * applied and given, once every second year, as a premium 

 to the author of the most important discovery or useful im- 

 provement which shall be 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 Academy have voted, that at their meeting in May next, 

 and afterwards at their meeting in May biennially, they will 

 decide on the discovery or improvement which shall appear to 

 be entitled to the premium. Notice will soon be published 

 of this vote. Count Rumford's donation is in three per 

 cent, stock. The residue of the fund arises from a dona- 

 tion of c£l00, given by Mr. Bowdoin in his will; the like 

 sum given by Josiah Quincy, Esq. 440 dollars given by 

 the General Court in 1787; and an annual assessment of two 

 dollars on each member. The sum of five dollars is also 

 paid by each member on his admission. In addition to the 

 pecuniary legacy, Governor Bowdotn gave to the Academy 

 his library, consisting of about twelve hundred volumes, 

 with liberty to sell any part of it, the proceeds to be vested 

 in books. About six' hundred volumes were sold under this 

 permission. The library of the Academy now contains about 



