EEPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 13 



Immediately upon the close of the competition the award committee 

 began examination of the papers, and at the end of the fiscal year had 

 practically completed their labors. Although the awards were not 

 formally announced until August 9, yet in view of the importance 

 and opportuneness of the subject it seems proper to include the com- 

 mittee's report in my report for this year. 



Report of the committee appointed by the Smithsonian Institution to award 

 the Rodghins fund prizes. 



The committee of award for the Hodgkins prizes of the Smithsonian 

 Institution has completed its examination of the 218 papers submitted 

 in competition by contestants. 



The committee is composed of the following members : 



Dr. S. P. Langley, chairman, ex-officio; Dr. G. Brown Goode, appointed 

 by the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution; Asst. Surg. Gen. John 

 S. Billings, by the president of the National Academy of Sciences ; Prof. 

 M. W. Harrington, by the president of the American Association for 

 the Advancement of Science. 



The foreign advisory committee, as first constituted, was represented 

 by Mods. J. Janssen, Prof. T. H. Huxley, and Professor von Helmholtz; 

 and after the recent loss of the latter, Dr. W. von Bezold was added. 

 After consultation with these eminent men, the committee decided as 

 follows : 



First prize, of $10,000, for a treatise embodying some new and 

 important discoveries in regard to the nature or properties of atmos- 

 pheric air, to Lord Bayleigh, of London, and Prof. William Ramsay, of 

 the University College, London, for the discovery of argon, a new ele- 

 ment of the atmosphere. 



The second prize, of $2,000, is not awarded, owing to the failure of 

 any contestant to comply strictly with the terms of the offer. 



The third prize, of $1,000, to Dr. Henry de Yarigny, of Paris, for the 

 best popular treatise upon atmospheric air, its properties and relation- 

 ships. Dr. de Varigny's essay is entitled " L'Air et la Vie." 



S. P. Langley. 

 G. Brown G de. 

 J. S. Billin . 

 Mark W. Harrington. 



Washington, August 9, 1895. 



Supplementary report of the committee appointed by the Smithsonian 

 Institution to award the Hodgkins fund prizes. 



After having performed the function to which the committee was 

 called, as announced by the circular of the secretary of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, dated March 31, 1893, which function did not include 

 the award of any medals, there remained several papers to which the 

 committee had been unable to give any prize, but to which they had 

 felt desirous to give some honorable mention, and on their representing 

 this to the Smithsonian Institution, they have been commissioned to do 

 so and also to give certain medals of silver and bronze which had been 

 subsequently placed at their disposition. 



The committee has decided that honorable mention should be made 

 of the papers, twenty-one in number, included in the following list, 

 which also gives the full names, titles, and addresses of the authors and 



