ON THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. XI 



examining all the improvements in the application of the Voltaic pile 

 made during the last five years in all the countries of Europe, it does 

 not think any of them of sufficient importance to merit the prize ; 

 and accordingly, the Emperor, in compliance with its recommendation, 

 has decreed that the prize shall remain open for a second period of 

 five years. 



A French gentleman, named Breant, who died some years back, 

 bequeathed the sum of 4,000 to the Academy of Sciences of Paris, 

 to be given to the author of a sovereign cure for the cholera. In 

 1854, the Academy reported that, though numerous persons had com- 

 peted for the prize, none of them had obtained it ; and during the 

 last year it again reported that though, since 1854, as many as fifty- 

 three memoirs or communications on the subject had been sent in, not 

 one was deserving of the promised reward. The field, consequently, 

 is still open to competitors. 



An imperial ukase has been issued at St. Petersburg suppressing 

 the teaching of Latin in all the colleges of the empire. The time 

 hitherto devoted to this study is to be added to that of the positive 

 sciences. 



The London Geographical Society has awarded the Victoria Gold 

 Medal for 1858, to Prof. A. D. Bache, Superintendent of the United 

 States Coast Survey, for his extensive and most accurate surveys of 

 America, and for the additions made by him to our knowledge of 

 geography and hydrography. Another gold medal has been also pre- 

 sented to Capt. R. Collinson, R. N., for his successful discoveries in 

 the Arctic Regions, and for having, in Her Majesty's ship Enterprise, 

 penetrated further to the eastward, through Behring Strait, than had 

 been reached by any other vessel. 



At a recent meeting of this society, also Sir R. I. Murchison read 

 an account of a highly interesting journey through the Elboorz Chain 

 of Central Asia, and of the ascent of the lofty volcanic mountain of 

 Demavend, by Mr. R. F. Thomson and Lord Schomberg Kerr, both 

 attached to the Persian mission. Having succeeded in reaching the 



o o 



summit of Demavend with instruments, the adventurous diplomatists 

 have determined its height to be 21,500 feet, and have thus deprived 

 Mount Ararat of the reputation, so long enjoyed, of being the high- 

 est point in Central Asia. 



The directors of the Geological Survey of Great Britian, have re- 

 cently presented to the State Cabinet of New York, and the Museum 

 of the Geological Survey of Canada, at Montreal, a complete set of 

 the duplicate fossils collected during the survey of the United King- 

 dom. These collections are carefully labelled, and, in their future 

 locations at Albany and Montreal, will constitute an important ad- 

 dition to the resources of American geologists. 



Some discussions of interest have taken place during the past year 

 in reference to the existence of an ethereal medium in the inter- 



