June 19, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



891 



of a people who had no contact with Euro- 

 peans, but who wei-e undoubtedly pre- 

 Columbian. Nor does the evidence of the 

 American origin of the pumpkin solely rest 

 upon the seeds discovered. A whole fi-uit 

 with the stem intact is incorporated in the 

 collection. Beside the fruit, we have the 

 strongly ribbed stems of the fruit used by 

 the cliff dwellers as stoppers for bottles. 

 According to the distinction made by Nan- 

 din, the stem of C. maxima is smooth ; that 

 of C. Pepo is strongly fluted and roughly 

 corrugated. So much for botanical evi- 

 dence. 



That the pumpkin is indigenous is shown 

 also, by the descriptions of the early ex- 

 plorers and settlers, and by the fact that 

 gourds and pumpkins were used for a 

 great many different purposes in America. 

 This argues for an American origin, be- 

 cause it takes time for a people to learn 

 new uses of a plant, which formerly may 

 have served only one or two purposes. 

 For example, among the cliff-dwelling 

 Indians gourds, using the word in a gen- 

 eral sense, were used for bottles, as recep- 

 tacles to hold feathers and cotton down 

 used in spinning. The stems were pre- 

 served and used as stoppers. The narrow 

 neck of the gourd dipper, if accidentally 

 broken off, was saved and used to hold the 

 ceremonial pollen of maize or of the tule. 

 The larger fruits were first dried, the in- 

 terior cleaned out, and were then used as 

 water pails or as receptacles in which to 

 store corn (Zsa mays), beans (Phaseolus vul- 

 garis) and grass seeds. Mr. Gushing de- 

 scribes* the gourd water bucket of the 

 Zuni as supported by wicker work com- 

 posed of fibrous yucca leaves. These are a 

 few of the many uses to which gourds were 

 put before the advent of the white man. 

 j. w. haeshbeec4ee. 



University of Pennsylvania. 



*■ 1882-83, Gushing, Report Bureau of Etlinology, 

 p. 483. 



AWARD AND PRESENTATION OF THE RUM' 

 FORD PREMIUM. 



In conformity with the terms of the gift 

 of Benjamin, Count Eumford, granting a 

 certain fund to the American Academy of 

 Arts and Sciences, the Academy is em- 

 powered to make, at any annual meeting, 

 an award of a gold and silver medal, being 

 together of the intrinsic value of three 

 hundred dollars, as a premium to the 

 author of an important discovery or useful 

 improvement in light or in heat, which 

 shall have been made and published by 

 printing, or in any way made known to the 

 public, in any part of the continent of 

 America, or any of the American Islands : 

 preference being always given to such dis- 

 coveries as shall, in the opinion of the 

 Academy, tend most to promote the good 

 of mankind. 



At the annual meeting of 1895 the 

 Academy awarded the premium to Thomas 

 Alva Edison for his investigations in 

 electric lighting, and the presentation of the 

 medals took place at the meeting of the 

 13th of May, 1896. 



Vice-President Goodale, in presenting the 

 medals, made the following remarks : 



It would be highly presumptuous for one 

 whose knowledge of physics is of the most 

 elementary character to occupy the time of 

 the Academy hj any statement of his own 

 in conveying these medals. Happily such 

 a course is unnecessary. The Chairman of 

 the Eumford Committee has placed at our 

 command a brief statement which makes 

 clear the ground of the award : 



" The Rumford Committee voted, June 

 22, 1893, that it is desirable to award the 

 Eumford medal to Thomas Alva Edison in 

 recognition of his investigation in the field 

 of electric lighting, and they confirmed this 

 vote on October 9, 1893, in the following 

 words : ' Voted for the second time to 

 recommend to the Academy that the Rum- 

 ford medal be awarded to Thomas Alva 



