Miscellaneous Intelligence. 275 
mention of individual specimens, brief but interesting chapters 
upon the different kinds of precious stones included ; we note one 
on the agate, another on the cutting, polishing and staining of 
agates at Oberstein, and others similar. 
IlI. MisckELLANEOUS SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE. 
1. Report of the Committee appointed by the Smithsonian 
Institution to Award the Hogdkins Fund Prizes.—The Commit- 
tee of Award for the Hodgkins prizes of the Smithsonian Institu- 
tion has completed its examination of the two hundred and 
eighteen papers submitted in competition by contestants. 
The committee is composed of the following members: Doctor 
S. P. Langley, chairman, ex-officio, Doctor G. Brown Goode, 
appointed by the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, Assist- 
ant Surgeon-General John 8S. Billings, by the President of the 
National Academy of Science, Professor M. W. Harrington, by 
the President of the American Association for the Advancement 
of Science. The Foreign Advisory Committee, as first con- 
stituted, was represented by Monsieur J. Janssen, Professor T. H. 
Huxley, and Professor von Helmholtz; and after the recent 
loss of the latter, Doctor W. von Bezold was added. After consul- 
tation with these eminent men, the committee decided as follows : 
First prize, of ten thousand dollars, for a treatise embodying 
some new and important discoveries in regard to the nature or 
properties of atmospheric air, to Lord Rayleigh, of London, and 
‘Professor William Ramsay, of the University College, London, 
for the discovery of argon, a new element of the atmosphere. 
The second prize, of two thousand dollars. is not awarded, 
owing to the failure of any contestant to comply strictly with 
the terms of the offer. 
The third prize, of one thousand dollars, to Doctor Henry de 
Varigny, of Paris, for the best popular treatise upon atmospheric 
air, its properties and relationships. Doctor de Varigny’s essay is 
entitled “ L’ Air et la Vie.” 
(Signed), S. P. Langley, G. Brown Goode, John S. Billings, 
M. W. Harrington. 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 Smithsonian 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 and to which they had felt desirous to give 
some honorable mention, and on their representing this to the 
Smithsonian Institution they bave 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 fol- 
lowing list, which also gives the full names, titles, and addresses 
