All our subordinate societies also seem to prosper, and labour diligently in their respective departments; we have newly formed one for the improvement of horticulture, which promises to become very numerous. I send you a book on the subject of heat, &c. (Leslie), which certainly contains many interesting experiments and much bad reasoning. Upon the whole, however, it appears to me that he will not be an unlikely candidate for your medal of the next year. Pray let me have your opinion of the subject; and, if you disapprove of him, who do you think a more successful promoter of the science you wish to encourage? I send your medals by Mr. ----. This is the first opportunity I have had, or you would sooner have received them. [These were the first Rumford medals, awarded to Rumford himself.] SIR JOSEPH BANKS TO COUNT RUMFORD. Soho Square, June 6, 1804. As it does not prove convenient to Mr. Livingstone to take with him the Society’s transactions or the observations of the Royal Observatory, which I wished to have sent, I am obliged to confine myself to the sending the enclosed books--‘Leslie on Heat’ for your acceptance, the ‘Nautical Almanac’ for M. Delambre--and the medals which the Royal Society decreed to you a year and a half ago. On the subject of the first I much wish for your opinion whether the author may be considered a proper person to receive your medal next year; and, if not, who you think a more deserving candidate? Be so good as to deliver the ‘Nautical Almanac’ to M. Delambre with my best regards, and to assure the Institute that I shall never forget the various favours I have in my literary character received from them or those which literary people, my friends, have received from them on my account. I honour and respect them both as a body and as individuals more than ever, and look forward with earnest wishes for the time when I may again communicate with them freely, as I once had the happiness of doing. I have received their medallic diplomas for Mr. Cavendish, Dr. Maskelyne, Dr. Herschel, and myself, and will distribute them without delay. Pray remind them, however, that Mr. James Forbes, F.R.S., is still a prisoner among them; though an old man, possibly he does not wish to return home, as his daughter has married into a French family. Possibly other insurmountable obstacles have prevented his release, as the Institute have so nobly and handsomely proved their wish that the Fellows of the Royal Society should be restored to their pursuits of science.