302 FRANKLIN INSTITUTE. 
is also new; and in some additional remarks, a quick and simple 
method of computing the axial ratios of Rhombohedrons, with four 
diagram illustrations, is laid before the reader. 
SCIENTIFIC AND LITERARY NOTES. 
FRANKLIN INSTITUTE: PHILADELPHIA. 
We have much pleasure in calling attention to the following notice, recently 
forwarded to us by the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia. The munificent offer 
of Mr. Boyden is open, it will be seen, to all residents of North America and the 
West India Islands: 
BOYDEN PREMiUM. 
Uriah A. Boyden, Esq., of Boston, Mass., has deposited with the Franklin 
Institute the sum of one thousand dollars, to be awarded as a Premium to “any 
resident of North America, who shall determine by experiment whether all rays 
of light, and other physical rays, are, or are not transmitted with the same 
velocity.” : 
The following conditions have been established for the award of this Premium: 
1. Any resident of North America, or of the West India Islands, may be a 
competitor for the Premium. The Southern boundary of Mexico being considered 
as the Southern limit of North America. 
2. Each competitor must transmit to “ Wm. Hamilton, Actuary of the Franklin 
Institute, Philadelphia, a memoir describing in detail the apparatus, the mode of 
experimenting, and the results; and all memoirs received by him before the 
first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and sixty two, (1862,) will, as 
soon as possible after that date, be transmitted to the Committee of Judges. 
3. The Board of Managers of the Franklin Institute, shall, before the first day 
of January, one thousand cight hundred aad sixty-two, select three citizens of the 
United States, of competent scientific ability, to whom the memoirs shall be 
referred: and the said Judges shall examine the memoirs, and report to the 
Franklin Institute whether in theit opinion, any, and if so which of the memoirs 
is worthy of the Premium. And, on their report, the Franklin Institute shall 
decide whether the Premium shall be awarded as recommended by the Judges. 
4. Every memoir shall be anonymous, but shall contain some motto or sign by 
which it can be recognised and designated, and shall be accompanied by a sealed 
envelope, endorsed on the outside with the same motto or sign, and containing 
the name and address of the author of the memoir. It shall be the duty of the 
Actuary of the Franklin Institute, to keep these envelopes securely, and unopened 
until the Judges shall have finished their examinations ; when, should the Judges 
be of opinion that any one of the memoirs is worthy of the premium, the corres- 
