S32 French National Institute. — New Books. 



nizing lectures on philosophical subjects, also form a part of 

 the plan of this society. 



FRENCH NATIONAL INSTITUTE. 



The clar A of history and ancient literature of the French 

 Institute has proposed the following as the subject of a 

 prize dissertation : " What were the people who inhabited 

 Cisalpine and Transalpine Gaul, at the different epochs of 

 history anterior to A. D. 410? — Determine the position of 

 the capital cities inhabited by these people, and the extent of 

 territory which they occupied. — Trace the successive changes 

 that took place in consequence of the divisions of the Gauls 

 into provinces.'' — The prize will be a gold medal of the 

 vajue of 1500 francs. The memoirs may be written in 

 Latin or in French, and must be transmitted to the Secre- 

 tariat of the Institute at Paris on or before the 1st of April, 

 1811. 



XL. Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles, 



JVIr. Brown, the botanist who accompanied Capt. Flin- 

 ders in the late voyage of discovery, has just published the 

 first volume of a work on the plants of New Holland, &c. 

 under the following title ; " Prodromus FlorcB ' Novw Hoi' 

 landice et Insulce Van-Diemen ; exhibens characteres plan- 

 tarum quas annis 1802 — 1805 per oras utriusque insulae 

 collegit et descripsit Rohertus Brown ; insertis passim aliis 

 speciebus auctori hucusque cognitis, sen evulgatis, sen in- 

 editis, praescrtim Banksianis^ in primo itinere navarchi 

 Cook detectis." 



M. Ebel, of Bavaria, has recently published a geological 

 work on the structure of the Alps, which is reported by the 

 continental journalists to contain much novelty, and to co- 

 incide entirely with the experiments made by Humboldt. 

 According to Messrs. Ebel and Humboldt, it is not true 

 that granite is the nucleus of the surface of the earth : on 

 the contrary, we find as many strata of granite as of any of 

 the other integrant substances of mountains. These strata 

 of stones in the mountains have been formed by crystalliza- 

 tion in the Sea of Chaos, and are found in "a great measure 

 on the same line from Savoy to Hungary. According to 

 these ideas, the earth resembles a prism of crystal, the edges 

 of which have been worn away by the flux and reflux of 

 the waters, without the ruins of these points having entirely 

 filled up the hollows made. These ideas are c;cpected to 



lead 



