NOTES 
THE HopGKIns FUND 
In October, 1891, Thomas George Hodgkins, Esq., of Setauket, 
New York, made a donation. to the Smithsonian Institution, the 
income from a part of which was to be devoted “to the increase and 
diffusion of more exact knowledge in regard to the nature and prop- 
erties of atmospheric air in connection with the welfare of man.” 
These properties may be considered in their bearing upon any or 
all of the sciences,—e. g., not only in regard to meteorology, but in 
connection with hygiene, or with physics, or with any department 
of either biological or physical knowledge. 
With the intent of furthering the donor’s known wishes, the 
Institution has already given a number of money prizes for treatises 
embodying new and important discoveries in regard to the nature 
or properties of air. This form of encouragement will not at present 
be renewed. 
A gold medal has been established under the name of the “ Hodg- 
kins Medal of the Smithsonian Institution,” which may be awarded 
from time to time for important contributions to our knowledge 
of the nature and properties of atmospheric air, or for practical 
applications of our existing knowledge of them to the welfare of 
mankind. 
Grants of money are made to specialists engaged in original 
investigations which involve the study of the properties of atmos- 
pheric air, accepting the phrase in its widest sense. 
Among the researches now in progress under grants from the 
Hodgkins Fund may be mentioned: (a) by Professor W. P. Brad- 
ley, of Wesleyan University, to determine the relation between the 
initial and the final temperatures of air which in flowing through 
a nozzle passes from a high to a lower temperature; (D) by Mr. S. 
P. Fergusson, of Blue Hill Observatory, on the differences between 
the meteorological conditions on the summit of mountains and at 
the same height in free air; (c) by Professor E. L. Nichols, of 
Cornell University, on the properties of matter at the temperature 
of liquid air; and (d) by Mr. Alexander Larsen, of Chicago, on 
photographing the spectrum of lightning flashes. Professor A. 
Lawrence Rotch has reported that in his investigations with ballons- 
sondes, aided by a grant from the Hodgkins Fund, the automatic 
374 
