French National Institute. 207 



As the answers sent in did not fulfil the require! condi- 

 tions, and the class considering that this question has been 

 proposed during four years, it decrees that the subject shall 

 be withdrawn. 



Astronomy. 



The decree of government, dated Floreal 13th, year 10, 

 which authorizes the National Institute to accept the gift 

 of a capital of 10,000 francs offered by C. Lalande, states, 

 a that, agreeably to the intentions of the donor, the annual 

 product of the capital shall be employed by the Institute to 

 give each year a «old medal, of the weight which the amount 

 of the revenue will permit, or the value of that medal, to 

 the person who in France or elsewhere, the members of 

 the National Institute excepted, shall have made the ob- 

 servation most interesting;, or published the memoir most 

 useful, to the progress- of astronomy." 



On a report by the commissioners named for that pur- 

 pose, the Class of the Mathematical and Physical Sciences 

 of the National Institute decreed the prize to M. Joseph 

 Piazzi, professor royal of astronomy and director of the 

 observatory at Palermo, for a work he has published under 

 the title of Vrcecipuarum Stellarum inerranlium Positiones 

 7nedi(B ineuvte Sceculo XIX. ex Observationibus habiiis in 

 Specula Panormitana. Panormi 1803, one vol. fol. 



This work, which contains the positions of about six 

 thousand stars, determined with the greatest care and the 

 best instruments, is the fruit of ten years assiduous observa- 

 tions and calculations, which must ensure to the author the 

 esteem and gratitude of all astronomers. It was while em- 

 ployed on this catalogue that M. Piazzi discovered, on the 

 1st of January 1601, the planet to which he gave the name 

 of Ceres Ferdinandea ; but even before this interesting dis- 

 coverv he was well known by the publication of two vo- 

 lumes of observations, which contain the foundations of 

 his catalogue, and a long series of observations exceedingly 

 useful to the theory of refractions. 



Conditions. 



All persons, the members of the Institute excepted, are 

 admitted as competitors. 



No answer must have the name of the author, but only 

 a sentence or device : the author, if he chooses, may affix 

 to it a separate billet, sealed, and containing, besides the 

 sentence or device, the name and address of the author. 

 This billet cannot be opened unless the paper has gained 

 the prize. 



The 



