XII TJfe and writings of Count llumford 



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 importa»t 

 discovery or useful improvement^, which shall he made and pub- 

 lished by printing or in any way made known to the public in any 

 part of the continent of America^ or in any of the American isl- 



r 



ands during the preceding two years, on heat and on light ; the 

 preference always being given to such discoveries as shall in the 



4 



opinion of the Academy tend most to promote the good of man- 

 kind. 



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

 my in their decisions on the comparative m&rits of those discove- 

 ries, which, in the opinion of the Academy, may entitle their an- 

 thors to be considered as competitors for this biennial premium, 



the Academy will be pleased 



o 



t h ey 



their wisdom may judge to be proper and necessary. But in re- 

 gard to the form in which this premium is conferred, I take the 

 liberty to request that it may always be given in two medals, 

 struck in the same dye, the one of gold and the other of silver. 



and of such dimensions as that both of them together may be just 

 equal in intrinsic value to the amount of the interest of the afore- 

 said five thousand dollars stock during two years 5 that is to say, 

 that they may together be of the value of three hundred dollars. 



" The Academy will be pleased to order sucb device or in- 

 scription to be engraved in the dye, they shall cause to be pre. 

 pared for striking these medals, as they may judge proper. 



*•' If during any term of two years, reckoning from the last 

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

 premium by the Academy, no new discovery or improvement 



