Scientific News^ Aceeunis of Books, ^t, , 3I5 



particularly towards the weft ? Proofs and conjefturcs derived from authors, or from ex- 

 ifting monuments, fuch as buildings, language, or the traditions of the Americans muft 

 be quoted. 



2. Mathematics. To difcovcr the fun£tion of all the quantities which, jointly, deter- 

 mine the magnitude of the efFe£l: of the caloric aiforded by every kind of combuftible made 

 ufe of in manufaflories, whether wood, pitcoal, or charcoal. When the equation is 

 found, it muil be determined in the four following cafes : i°. When wood, pitcoal, or 

 charcoal are burnt in a ftove or veflel to heat the confined air ; for example of a room. 

 2°. When thefe materials are ufed to boil all forts of liquids over a fire place. 3°. When 

 they are ufed to harden foft fubftances, as, for inftance, to make bricks, 4°, and laftly, 

 when employed in melting metals. 



Supported by experiments, the authors muft difcover and eftablifli the different equations 

 analytically ; in order that by their application, the efFeft and ceconomy of each of thefe 

 three kinds of combuftibles, wood, coal, and charcoal, may be calculated. 



3. Natural philofophy. To find by experiments the greateft degree of heat which 

 aqueous vapours, when heated, can communicate to other bodies? Can that part of the 

 water which, in the digefter of Papin, is not reduced to vapour by the heat, acquire more 

 than 212 degrees of Fahrenheit's thermometer ? 



4. The Society having had the fatisfa£l;ion to crown an anfwer to its philofophical 

 queftion for the preceding year, propofes the following queftion for the prize o£ the pre- 

 fent year. 



What new difcoveries have been made in philofophy fince the time of Plato and 

 Ariftotle, in its refearches into, and its explanation of, the nature of human knowledge 

 with refpedt to exifting beings ? 



The prefent queftion here, is not to afcertain what progrefs has been made in thofe 

 fciences which treat exiftances, whether corporeal or incorporeal j but it relates to 

 our internal knowledge (which fome philofophers call subjeSiiw) to know what, in general, 

 is the nature and the power of this knowledge, its origin and caufe, the principles and 

 reafons upon which this manner of knowing is determined and eftablifhed, and upon 

 which is founded that truth which is therein found, or imagined to be found. It is ex- 

 pe£ted that an hiftorical expofition fhould be given, of what has been produced on this 

 fubjeft by the meditations of philofophers fince the time of Plato and Ariftotle; how 

 much we are indebted to them for new difcoveries* or for fa£ls better eftabliflied and de- 

 fined ; or on the contrary, if it {hall appear that philofophy has not made any progrefs in 

 this refpeft, it is expefted that this fliould be demonftrafed from the hiftory of the dogmas 

 of philofophers. 



The anfwers to thefe queftions are to be written in Danifh, in French, or in German, 

 and forwarded with the ufual formalities, before the end of June 1801, to Profeflbr P. C. 

 Abildgaaid, Secretary to the Society* 



3; DecompofttioHi 



