242 Life of Count Rumford. 



mankind, and wishing at the same time to leave a lasting testi- 

 mony of my respect for the Royal Society of London, I take 

 the liberty to request that the Royal Society would do me the 

 honour to accept of one thousand pounds stock in the funds of 

 this country, which I have actually purchased, and which I beg 

 leave to transfer to the President, Council, and Fellows of the 

 Royal Society, to the end that the interest of the same may be, 

 by them and by their successors, received from time to time for 

 ever, 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 or pub- 

 lished by printing, or in any way made known to the publick, in 

 any part of Europe during the preceding two years, on Heat or 

 on Light ; the preference always being given to such discov- 

 eries as shall, in the opinion of the President and Council, tend 

 most to promote the good of mankind. 



" With regard to the formalities to be observed by the Presi- 

 dent and Council in their decisions upon the comparative merits 

 of those discoveries which, in the opinion of the President and 

 Council, may entitle their authors to be considered as competi- 

 tors for this biennial premium, the President and Council of the 

 Royal Society will 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 con- 

 ferred, 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 to- 

 gether may be just equal in intrinsic value to the amount of the 

 interest of the aforesaid one thousand pounds stock during two 

 years ; that is to say, that they may together be of the value of 

 Sixty Pounds Sterling. 



"The President and Council of the Royal Society will be 

 pleased to order such device or inscription to be engraved on the 

 die that they shall cause to be prepared for striking these med- 

 als, as they may judge proper. 



" If, during any term of years, reckoning from the last ad- 

 judication, or from the last period for the adjudication of this 



