Life of Count Rumford. 245 



those conditions, they may, I think, fairly be considered as 

 being within the limits assigned to the operation of the premium. 

 The objects, however, which I had more particularly in view to 

 encourage, are such practical improvements in the generation 

 and management of heat and of light as to tend directly and 

 powerfully to increase the enjoyments and comforts of life, 

 especially in the lower and more numerous classes of society. 



" I am, &c., 



" RUMFORD." 



Before this letter had been penned, a committee of 

 the Council of the Society, consisting of Sir Charles 

 Blagden, Mr. Joseph Planta, and Dr. Combe, had been 

 appointed, " to consider and report upon a design for a 

 medal." Subsequently, Sir Joseph Banks, Dr. Gray 

 (Secretary), and Count Rumford, who had been chosen 

 into the Council, were added to the Committee, who, 

 on the 4th of April, 1799, delivered in a Report with 

 the following Resolution : 



" Resolved, That the device on the obverse be a tripod with 

 a flame upon it. And that the inscription round the same be part 

 of the 773d verse of the Vth Book of Lucretius (De Rerum Na- 

 tura) : 



' Noscere qu<e vis et causa? 



"That the inscription on the reverse be as follows: 



' Premium optime merenti ex institute Benj. a Rumford, S. R. L 

 Comitis : adjudication a Reg. Soc. Land? 



" That the diameter of the Medal do not exceed three inches. 

 That Mr. Milton be employed in sinking the dies of the said 

 Medal." * 



The Report of the Committee was accepted by the 

 Council, and the Resolution was approved, to be carried 

 into immediate execution. But from some unexplained 



* The device on the obverse was suggested by Mr. Smirke. 



