< Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 9.djvu
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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
tem the doctrine of evolution is preëminent. In Spencer's mind evolution is not merely a principle in biology, but extends on the one hand to inorganic Nature, and on the other hand to the domain of psychology and sociology. And here we take occasion to remind the reader that, independently of the stimulus given to scientific thought by Darwin, Mr. Spencer early recognized the importance of the law of evolution, to which from the first he gave very wide scope, and which he has illustrated with a multitude of original ideas."
"A detailed criticism of the 'First Principles' would necessarily require a book for itself, more especially because the German reader, from the very nature of his philosophical training, will enter on the study of the most general laws of being, the demonstration of which is the aim of the present work, with prepossessions different from those of the English author. Perhaps in the philosophical literature of recent times there is no English work which bears the national stamp so visibly as does Spencer's. From this point of view alone, to say nothing of the many pregnant thoughts it contains, it well deserves the attention of German readers. John Stuart Mill, in the philosophical direction of his mind, came too much under the influence of the French, particularly of Comte. Spencer's mind is, no doubt, more original than Mill's, and more free from foreign influences, though inferior in the splendor of external form. In all the philosophical speculations of Spencer we plainly see that practical sense which makes its way through the most difficult problems by the shortest route."
"Finally, though the German reader will find in these 'Bases of Philosophy' much that he will object to, and though on the capital points of the system he will dissent from the author oftener than he agrees with him, nevertheless he will not lay the book aside without having received many a valuable suggestion. Indeed, it may be truly said of works on philosophy, that we learn more from those which arouse our opposition than from those which merely echo our own opinions."

THE RUMFORD MEDALS.

The Rumford gold medal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, founded to commemorate important contributions toward our knowledge of heat and light, has just been granted to Dr. John William Draper, of New York. This is a distinguished tribute to the scientific labors of our eminent physicist and chemist, and the Academy has honored itself in the award. Yet, those who know how early and eminent were Dr. Draper's original contributions to the chemistry of light, will be tempted to ask why this distinction was not accorded by the Academy to Dr. Draper a generation ago. As reminiscences of Count Rumford are being revived just now, it will be interesting to glance at the history of his medals, which have attained such celebrity in the scientific world.

Deeply impressed with the importance of extending the knowledge of heat and light, to which he had devoted himself with great assiduity and success, Count Rumford, in 1796, presented to the Royal Society £1,000, the interest of which was to be spent in striking two medals both in the same die, one of gold and one of silver, worth the interest of the donation for two years, and to be given biennially for the most important discovery or improvement relating to heat and light that should have been made during the preceding two years in any part of Europe. The trust was accepted and the medals designed. The first award was to Rumford himself in 1802. In 1804 John Leslie received the Rumford medals. The honor then passed, in 1806, to Murdock; in 1810 to Malus; in 1814 to Dr. Wells; in 1816 to Humphry Davy; in 1818 to David Brewster; in 1824 to Fresnel; in 1834 to Melloni; in 1838 to J. D. Forbes; in 1840 to Biot; in 1842 to Fox-Talbot; in 1846 to Faraday; in 1848 to Regnault; in 1850 to Arago; in 1852 to Stokes; in 1854 to Arnott; in 1856 to Pasteur; in 1858 to Jamin; in 1860 to Clerk Maxwell; in 1862 to Kirchhoff; in 1864 to Tyndall; in 1866 to Fizeau; in 1868 to Balfour Stewart.

At the same time Count Rumford made a corresponding donation to the

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