484 PRIZE QUESTIONS. 



PONTIFICAL ACADEMY OF THE NUOVI LINCEI.— PROGRAMME FOR THE 

 CARPI PRIZE.— ROME, JUNE 12, 1868. 



The academy, with the view of confcmng' the annual prize founded by the 

 generous testamentary provision of its late associate doctor, Pierre Carpi, proposes 

 the development of the following theme : 



To compare with one another the tides of the principal ports of all the Italian 

 coasts, a7icl to appreciate and explain their differences. 



Explanation. — Galileo had occupied himself with the flow and el)l> of the 

 sea.* But in his time, that is to say in 1616, neither the true doctrine of univer- 

 sal attraction nor the higher analysis was known ; it was not possible, therefore, 

 to indicate the principal causes of the phenomenon in question. Notwithstanding 

 this, that illustrious Lincean sought, t two and a half centuries ago, to investigate 

 the probable reasons which cause the flow and ebb of the sea to be more sensi- 

 ble in the Adriatic, and especially at Venice, than on the coasts of the Mediter- 

 ranean. It thus appears that our subject w-as, in part, considered by the glorious 

 reformer of the doctrines of Aristotle. 



In its discussion the proposed theme should be well developed, yet all that 

 does not strictly pertain to the question should be avoided, without, however, 

 going so far as to suppress anything which may contribute to give clearness and 

 force to the demonstrations. It will be of great service to the author to be 

 acquainted with the researches respecting the tides already executed by physical 

 geographers, such, for instance, as Ilinnboldt, Whewell, Lubbock, Berghaus, 

 Germar, Tliomson, Maury, Dession, Chezallon, &c., and also by the modern 

 geometers, Laplace, Delaunay, and others. 



The author should have recourse to sources, either official or entirely worthy 

 of credit, for the observations which have been made on the cotemporaneousuess 

 of tides, on their differences in point of time, and should indicate whence he has 

 collected those observations. He should also state the intervals which separate 

 high tide from the lunar culmination, and likewise its maximum, minimum, and 

 mean ordinary or extraordinary height, at the syzygies and at the equinoxes, 

 under the influence of certain winds and on occasion of considerable changes of 

 atmospheric pressure, &c. All the physical or geographical circumstances which 

 modify the usual course of the tides should be generally stated, and explana- 

 tions furnished. Above all it is requisite to indicate the causes of the differences 

 observed between the tides of the principal ports of all the coasts of Italy. 

 Finally, it is recommended that the argument should be developed also in its 

 relations to mathematical analysis, taking as a guide chiefly what has been pub- 

 lished on this subject by the illustrious Laplace in his Mecanique celeste. But 

 if the author flnds that our theme does not, from its nature, permit the applica- 

 tion of analysis, he should clearly set forth the difficulties which oppose them- 

 celves to the attempt. 



Although in strictness the theme simply demands a scientific study and explana- 

 tion of the tides in the principal ports of Italy, by reason that these offer a 

 greater interest, yet the academy will receive with thankfulness, observations 

 and researches on the tides at every other point of the Italian coasts, whether in 

 the islands or on the continent. 



Conditions. — 1. The memoirs on the proposed theme should be drawn up 

 either in Italian, Latin, or French; no other language is admissible. 2. Each 

 memoir will be preceded by an epigraph, which shall be repeated on the outside 

 of a sealed envelope, containing the name and address of the author. 3. Only 

 the envelope corresponding to the memoir which shall obtain the prize will be 



*A manuscript treatise on this physico-geographical phenomena may be found in the library 

 of the Vatican ; it contains a highly interesting autographic frontispiece of Galileo. 



t Le opere di Galileo Galilei; t. P, Florence, 1842, p. 498, and t. IP, Florence, 1843, p. 

 400. 



