428 PRIZE QUESTIONS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 



seem to be sufficiently complete to be placed in the number of those 

 which it accepts for publication. 



The society thinks fit to repeat the following twelve questions, 

 and it requires answers to them before the Ist of January, 1860: 



1. For some years past the Siphonifers have been objects of the 

 learned researches of L. Leuckart, Gegenbaur, Vogt, and Kolliker, 

 and the opinion has prevailed that they should be regarded as colonies 

 of animals. The society requests a critical examination of all that 

 has reference to this class of animals, such examination to be founded 

 upon new researches; and, as an appendix to it, the society requires 

 a plan of classification of the Siphonifers indicative of the relations 

 existing between these animals and other invertebrates. 



2. What general results are to be deduced from observations on 

 the development of articulated animals and molluscs in the egg when 

 compared with what is known of the embryology of vertebrated 

 animals ? 



3. The society requests — 1st, an exact description, founded upon 

 microscopic observation, of the compound stomach of ruminating 

 animals, and of the various compartments found in them, illustrated 

 by requisite figures; 2dly, a chemical examination of the fluids con- 

 tained in the different compartments of these organs at different 

 periods of the process of digestion, and of their action upon aliments 

 by experiments on artificial digestion; and, 3dly, a physiological ex- 

 plication, founded upon these examinations and experiments, of the 

 functions of the various compartments, and of the peculiar structure 

 which enable them to digest, and, perhaps, partially to absorb, a 

 portion of the constituent principles of nourishment. 



4. The researches of Slarber, Boddaert, and others, have proved 

 that the shores of Lower Zealand abound in molluscs and rayed ani- 

 mals of species which exist rarely or not at all on shores bounded 

 by sandy beaches. The society desires these shores to be further 

 explored with reference to the fact in question, that the researches 

 be made by the aid of dredges, and that any new or imperfectly 

 known animals thus found may be described and figured. 



5. The salts which result from the combination of an electro- 

 positive metallic chloride with an electro-negative chloride are not as 

 yet well known. The society desires new researches upon these in- 

 teresting compounds. 



6. The society requires new researches upon the development of 

 electricity by the friction of liquids upon solids. It especially desires 

 a repetition of the experiments of Faraday with steam at considerable 

 pressures, with a view to ascertaining if there are not some excep- 

 tions to the rules laid down by that illustrious savant. The society 

 also desires a decision of the question whether the electricity which 

 is frequently developed at the moment when the spheroidal state 

 ceases is due solely to the friction, and whether the greater portion 

 of the electricity obtained when experimenting with solutions should 

 be attributed to the frictions of the liquid molecules against the solid 

 portions deposited by the solution. 



