list SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh, 



The Society will give a set of books, or a medal of five 

 guineas value, to the author of the the best experimental 

 e^jsay in answer to the followmg question. 

 Frut question. Does any decomposition of acids and alkalis take place 

 on their unitingto form neutral salts, according to an opinion 

 lately advanced by Mr. Davy in respect to muriates? 



Honorary, extraordinary, and ordinary members of the 

 Society are alone invited as candidates, Tlie dissertations 

 are to be written in English, Latin, or French, and to be 

 delivered to the Secretary on or before the first Day of 

 December, 1812, And thp adjudication of the prize will 

 take place in the last week of February following, l^o 

 each dissertation is to be prefixed a motto; and this motto 

 is to be written on the outside of a sealed packet, containing 

 the name and address of the author. No dissertation wiU 

 be received with the author's name affixed ; and all disr 

 X fiertations, except the successful one, will be returned, if 

 desired, with the sealed packet unopened. 



Wemerian Nfttnral History Society. 



At the meetinir on the 6th of April, Mr. William Elford 

 Leach Jaid before this Society an arrangement of the na- 



X>ipter«. • toral ?rib^ o? diptera, eproboscidea of Latreille, with de- 

 scriptions of the species, which he illustrated by drawings 

 and specimens. At the same meeting Prof. Jameson read 



Coal in the ^" account of the occurrence of coal in the first sandstone 



irst sandstone, formation in Thuringia and Silesia; whence he inferred 

 the possibility of coal existing in the extensive depositions 

 jof red sandstone in Scotland, in which that valuable mine- 

 ral has not hitherto bieen discovered. 



SpAJety*sMe- The first volume of th.e Werneriap Society of Natural 



jaoirs. H'stpry hi^s just been published. 



India Man- The 2d part of the Maritime Directory for navigating 



time Direc- ^^^ from, and between the Ports of India, China, &c., by 



^ James Horsburgh, Esq., F. R. S. is in the press, and ip 



expected to be ready for publication in July, 



