HOLLAND SOCIETY OF SCIENCES OF HARLEM, 1869. 415 



On the advice of tlie referees, the assemLly awarded the gold medal to tho 

 autlior of the above memoir; whieli, upon the opening of the sealed note, was 

 found to 1)0 the joint ])n)diiction of Dr. C. K. lloffrnann, adjunct physician at 

 Meerenberg, and of ^L II. "Weijcnbcrgh, jr., surgeon and accoucheur at Utrecht. 



Of our own countrymen, the members elected at the session in question were 

 MM. E. II. Beima, keeper of the museum of natural history at Leyden ; R. P. 

 A. Dozy, professor in the faculty of philosophy and letters at Leyden ; J. F. W. 

 Conrad, engineer-in-chief of the Waterstaat, at ^liddlebourg. Of foreigners, the 

 following were at the same time elected members of the society : MM. L. A. J. 

 Quetelet, from Brussels; W. Sartorius von Waltershausen, from Gottingen; A. 

 W. llofmann, from Berlin; J. D. Dana, from New Haven. 



The president notified the assembly that the library, put in order and pro- 

 vided with a catalogue by the care of the secretary, is now at the disposal of the 

 directors and members of the societv. 



The Society oifers for competition the following questions, the answers to which 

 must be addressed to it before the 1st of January, 1871 : 



I. Tlie knowledge of the peat-bogs of tho Netherlands, as well the higher as 

 the lower, is yet far from being complete. There remain many researches to bo 

 made before we can determine with precision what are the plants of which they 

 are composed; in particular, what are the ligneous substances found therein, and 

 what the succession of the different vegetable species in the series of the l)eds of 

 these peats, from the most ancient to those which still continue to be formed. 

 The society desires to see this suV)ject elucidated, and suggests consequently a 

 thorough microscopic examination of the plants composing the Netherland peats. 



II. The society requests an exact description of all the chemical or physical 

 operations in which have been obtained, whether accidentally or by virtue of 

 direct experiments, those cheuiical combinations wliich, by their chemical and 

 physical characters, accord with the inorganic compounds existing in nature, 

 under the form of minerals. The production of new artificial minerals is not 

 asked for, but simply the critical appreciation of results already realized, with 

 the exact indication of the works and memoirs in which the known artificial 

 minerals have been described ; in the classification of these products, conformity 

 should be observed with some one of the mineralogical systems most extensively 

 accepted. 



III. The society considers it desirable that a description of the fossil flora of 

 some of tho coal dejiosits of Borneo should bo given, and a comparison of that 

 flora with those of other coal formations. 



IV. The society desires a monograph of the substances called albuminous ; 

 this monograph should comprise an historical review of tho numerous researches 

 to which these substances liave given rise and a critical ap[)reciation of tlio 

 opinions which at present maintain a footing in science with regard to this subject. 



V. The society asks that the co-efficients of dilatation of dilferent kinds of 

 glass, especially of those which serve for tho construction of thermometers, 

 should b(i exactly determined, according to tlie method of M. Fizeau, between 

 — .'iO ai)d -|- 500 degrees of the centigrade thermometer. 



VI. Recent researches seem to confirm the opinion tliat the bodies called 

 hydrates of carbon are jiolyatomic alcoliols ; tho society invites new researches 

 calcuh'ited to elucidate this inq)ortaiit point. 



VII. The d(!termination of tem])eratures higher than 350 degrees of the cen- 

 tigrade thennometer still leaves, in all cases, much to be de.sired ; the soci(;ty 

 will confer its gold medal for the construction of some very simple apparatus 

 which shall give the temperatures up to at least 500 degrees of tho centigrade 

 scale. 



