medals of the value of $300 which might be awarded every second year, the residue of the income could be used for the purchase of books and apparatus, for publications or for assisting investigation.
The first award of the Rumford premium of the Academy was made in 1839 to Robert Hare, of Philadelphia, for his oxyhydrogen-blowpipe, and the second was awarded in 1862 to John Ericsson for his caloric engine. Since that time the award has been made with tolerable regularity, the last awards having been made in 1902 to Professor George E. Hale for the spectroheliograph and in 1904 to Professor E. P. Nichols for his researches on radiation. The surplus income of the Rumford fund was at first awarded chiefly to the Harvard College Observatory and to other departments of Harvard University. The awards this year have been for researches as follows: Professor D. B. Brace, whose untimely death occurred this month, 'Double Refraction in Gases in an Electrical Field'; Charles B. Thwing, 'Thermo-electric Force of Metals and Alloys'; Harry W. Morse, 'Fluorescence'; John Trowbridge, 'Electric Double Refraction of Light'; Edwin H. Hall, 'Thermal and Thermo-electric Properties of Iron and Other Metals.' The Rumford fund now amounts to nearly $00,000, and is administered by a standing committee of the American Academy. Applications for aid in the furtherance of research on light and heat may be made to the chairman of the committee, Professor Charles R. Cross, in care of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Boston, Mass.
THE MAGNETIC SURVEY OF THE NORTH PACIFIC OCEAN.
The Carnegie Institution of Washington has made an appropriation of $20,000 to cover the expenses for the current year of a Magnetic Survey of the North Pacific Ocean, to be made by its Department of Terrestrial Magnetism of which Dr. L. A. Bauer is the director. For this purpose a wood built, non-metallic sailing vessel of
