214 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIV, No. 345. 



years in the Hawaiian Islands was received 

 with acclamation. 



Later in the year the French Academy 

 of Sciences awarded him the Wilde Prize 

 on account of his researches and publica- 

 tions in the field of terrestrial magnetism. 

 This prize was founded by Henry Wilde, 

 an English scientist who gave the French 

 Academy of Sciences a sum of money, the 

 income from which forms a prize described 

 as follows, in the Comptes Rendus Academie 

 des Sciences, France, No. 126, p. 144: '' This 

 prize will be awarded each year, beginning 

 with 1898, by the Academy of Sciences, 

 without regard to nationality, to the person 

 whose discoveries or publications under as- 

 tronomy, physics, chemistry, mineralogy, 

 geology, or experimental mechanics, shall 

 be judged by the Academy most worthy of 

 reward, whether that discovery or publica- 

 tion was made in the same year or in some 

 other year before or after the foundation of 

 the prize." 



In accordance with the deed of gift this 

 prize was awarded for the first time in 1898, 

 and Mr. Schott received it in due form 

 through the Department of State and from 

 the hands of the President. The following 

 extracts are of interest from their bearing 

 on this memorable incident : 



Extract from Comptes Rendus Academie des Sciences, 

 France, No. 127, p. 1097. 



The Henry Wilde Prize. 



Committee M. M. Sarrau, J. Bertrand, Berthelot, 

 Michel Levy ; Mascart, Secretary. 



At the session of July 12, 1897, M. H. Wilde pre- 

 sented to the Academy of Sciences, under the name 

 of Magnetarium, a remarkable apparatus now in the 

 Museum of Arts and Industries which permits of the 

 reproduction on the surface of a sphere, with marvel- 

 ous accuracy, the distribution of the elements of ter- 

 restrial magnetism and their secular variations. 



The Commission has decided that, in order to ren- 

 der homage to the inventor of that great work, it is 

 desirable to make the first award of the prize founded 

 by M. Henri Wilde to researches relating to terres- 

 trial magnetism. 



Since 1869, the ' Annual Eeports ' of the United 



States Coast and Geodetic Survey contain, almost 

 every year, memoirs of the greatest interest by Mr. 

 Charles A. Schott, on the determination of the mag- 

 netic elements at the permanent observatories of the 

 United States, and at a great number of temporary sta- 

 tions. The extensive work accomplished by Mr. 

 Schott can not be stated in a brief resume. * * * One 

 finds in his memoirs an explanation of the methods 

 employed in the observatories and in the course of 

 journeys ; a comprehensive view of the results ob- 

 tained since the first observations on the American 

 continent and a certain ijumber of foreign stations ; 

 an exhaustive discussion of the readings made of the 

 apparent variations in certain observatories with the 

 study of the diurnal change for the different months 

 of the year, of the lunar influence and perturbations ; 

 and lastly a considerable number of personal obser- 

 vations in many isolated stations ; this work permits 

 the establishment of the lines of magnetic distribu- 

 tion in North America. The whole of this work 

 furnishes one of the most important contributions in 

 the history of terrestrial magnetism and the Commis- 

 sion is unanimous in awarding the Henry Wilde 

 prize to Mr. Charles A. Schott. 



From the Public Press, February 4, 1899. 



" An interesting episode took place at the 

 White House this afternoon at 4 o'clock, 

 when, in the presence of the Secretary of 

 the Treasury, the Superintendent of the 

 Coast and Geodetic Survey, and twenty-five 

 of Mr. Schott's colleagues, the President pre- 

 sented to Mr. Charles A. Schott the prize re- 

 cently conferred upon him by the Academy 

 of France. This prize of 4,000 francs was 

 founded by an Englishman about two years 

 ago, and was to be conferred by the Acad- 

 emy on any person, in any country, whose 

 discoveries in science, or whose original in- 

 vestigations had been most valuable and 

 had contributed most to human knowledge, 

 in the direction of mathematics, mechanics, 

 physics, chemistry or geology. The Acad-' 

 emy, after due consideration, conferred the 

 prize on Mr. Schott for his investigations 

 into the laws of terrestrial magnetism. 



"After the officersof the survey had been 

 duly introduced to the President and to the 

 Secretary, by the Superintendent of the 

 Coast and Geodetic Survey, the official 

 papers containing the award were placed by 



