PROGRAMME OF THE HOLLAND SOCIETY OF SCIENCES OF HARLEM, 18C9. 



The Holland Society of Sciences, lield at Harlem, 15 May, 1869, its Inmdred 

 and seventeentli annual session. The President-Director, Baron F. W. van 

 Styrum, opened the sitting \Aith an address in which he recalled the losses sus- 

 tained by the society since its last general meeting ; those, namely, of the 

 director Baron G. F. Thoe Schwartzenlierg at Hohenlansberg, of the native 

 members G. Simons, H. C. Millies and J. van Lennep, and of the foreign mem- 

 bers K. F. P. von ^lartius, at Munich, J. Pliicker, at Bonn, H. von Meyer, at 

 Frankibrt-on-the-Maine, and C. S. M. Pouillet, at Paris. Finally, the nomina- 

 tion of M. G. Willink de Bennebroek, as a director of the society, was announced. 

 Since the last annual meeting the society has published : Archives Necrland- 

 aiscs des Sciences exactes et naturelles, parts 3, 4 and 5 of vol. iii, 1 and 2 

 of vol. iv. 



In reference to a proposition submitted by MM. J. P. van Wickevoort Crom- 

 melin, D. de Haan, J. van der Hoeven, J. P. Delprat, R. van Rees, A, H* 

 van der Boon Mesch, D. Lubach, and V. S. M. van der Willigen, and for the 

 consideration of w'hich a committee was appointed at the last general nieetingj 

 composed of the directors G. F. van Tets and J. P. van Wickevoort Cromme- 

 lin, and of the members V. S. M. v<an der Willigen, G. de Vries, C. A. J. A. 

 Oudemans, P. Harting and E. H. von Baumhauer, the societ}' adopted the fol- 

 lowing as its decision : 



1st. Besides the medals decreed for questions proposed for competition, the 

 society ordains two new medals, each of the intrinsic value of 500 florins, one of 

 them to bear the name and efligy of " Huyghens," the other those of '' BoER- 

 HAAVE." 2d. These medals shall be alternately awarded, GVQxy two years, to 

 the savant, whether Netherlander or foreigner, who by his researches shall, in 

 the judgment of the society, have most contributed, dining the last twenty years, 

 to the progress of some definite branch of the physico-mathematical sciences or 

 of the natural sciences. 3d. The Huyghens medal shall be assigned in 1870 to 

 physics, in 1874 to chemistry, in 1878 to astronomy, in 1882 to meteorology, in 

 1886 to mathematics, (pure and applied.) The ]3oerhaave medal shall be 

 assigned in 1872 to mineralogy and geology, in 1876 to botany, in 1880 to 

 zoology, in 1884 to physiology, in 1888 to anthropology ; and thereafter in the 

 same recurrent succession. 4th. The preliminary judgment on the respective 

 titles shall be referred to a committee named l>y the directors; of which commit- 

 tee the secretary of the society shall always be a member. 5th. The medal 

 shall always be awarded by the general assembly, on the detailed and analytic 

 report of the connnittee of judgment. 



The followirig question having been oflfered for competition in 1865 and con- 

 tinued in 1867: ''The society requests an exact description, with figures, of the 

 skeleton and muscles of the Sciunis vulgaris^ compared with what is known on 

 this subject of the Lemurides and the Chiromys, in order that the place to be 

 assigned to this last species in the natural classification may be determined with 

 more certainty than has been heretofore possible ;" a reply has been received 

 through a memoir in the Dutch language, bearing the motto : Beter is het te 

 pogen zondcr te slagcn dan stil te zittcn ttit vrees roor nutteloose moeite. (Better is 

 it to endeavor without succeeding than to sit still from fear of profitless labor). 



