70 SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



Ohservation on the preceding article hy one of the miihors of 

 the Annales de C hemic. 



The result ex- Agreeably to the request of Mr. d'Arcet, in addressing to 

 Guvton ^^ "^^ ^^'® "°*^' ^ ^^^^ examined the liquid in the phial ac- 

 companying it. It was more than half full of small, white, 

 crystalline scales. Tlie liquor acted powerfully on paper 

 tinged by mallow flowers, changing it green. On dropping 

 into it sulphuric acid a little in excess, a copious precipitate 

 of sulphate of barytes was formed, without the least smell 

 of acetic acid. After having filtered the liquor from this 

 precipitate, I evaporated it by a gentle heat, in a platina 

 capsule ; but it left no trace of any neutral salt. No doubt 

 can remain therefore, but the acetate of barytes is radically 

 decomposed by soda. 



L. B. GUYTON, 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



Adjudication of Prizes, with a proposed new Question, hy the 

 Imperial Academy of Sciences at St. Petersburgh, 



Question pro- A HE Imperial Academy of Sciences had proposed in 



posed by the their last public notice the prize of five hundred rubles 

 academy on,^ _. i,., 



light. [A II 2 J 05. J, to be given to any professor or natural philo- 



sophy, who would establish, and communicate to the aca- 

 demy, a series of " new and instructive experiments on light 

 ** considered as matter ; also, on the properties, which may 

 ** in part be attributed to it; on the affinities, which it may 

 *' appear to have either on organized or unorganized bodies; 

 ** and upon the modifications and phenomena of these sub- 

 *' stances by their combinations with the matter of light.'* 

 — The academy had declared at tlje same time, in order not 

 to confine the learned who might have been pursuing simi- 

 lar inquiries, that they contented themselves with stating 

 the subject generally, leaving them at liberty to consider 

 the question in any point of view, that might appear best 

 calculated to elucidate a question so diflicult. 



The academy has received within the prescribed time six 

 tracts on the question, each having a note sealed and motto. 



— viz. 



