452 PRIZE QUESTIONS. 



imperiales to tlie candidate who, upon accurate examination, shall furnish a 

 comparison of the qualities of metals or compounds of metals deposited by 

 electrolysis, with the qualities of the same metals produced in another way. 



In the treatment of the above inquiries, the Latin, French, English, German, 

 Swedish, or Danish languages may be used. The memoirs communicated must 

 be anonymous ; but the name, style and domicile of the author of each will be 

 conveyed in a sealed note,-' which will bear a mark or epigraph corresponding 

 with a similar one on the paper ofiTered for competition. Communications will 

 be made to G. Forchhammer, corresponding secretary, before the end of Octo- 

 ber, 1866. 



PEIZE QUESTION IN PHYSICS, PROPOSED MAT 30, 1S65, BY THE IMPERIAL 

 ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF VIENNA. 



Since the time when the existence of two opposite electrical states or condi- 

 tions was inferred by Grey from the attraction and repulsion of electrical 

 bodies, up to the present day, when we have learned, by means of magnetic 

 influence, to separate from one another the two opposite currents, the positive 

 and negative, and to present each distinct in itself, there has been recognized a 

 succession of other facts which authorize us to regard these conditions as dif- 

 ferent and opposed in other respects. The occasion would, therefore, seem to 

 have arisen for a critical examination of the collective facts already discovered 

 and bearing upon this subject, and for their discussion in connexion with the 

 question : how far they lend support to one or other of the existing hypotheses 

 on the nature of the electric principle. 



The matliematico-physical class of the Imperial Academy of Sciences has 

 therefore decided to propose a prize for a satisfactory solution of the following 

 question in the department of physics : " To collate and critically examine the 

 phenomena which, since the thirtieth year of the eighteenth century, have been 

 recognized as distinguishing positive and negative electricity from one another, 

 as well in their statical as active state, and to discuss those phenomena in con- 

 nexion with the question : in what relation they stand to one or other of the 

 hypotheses already advanced respecting the nature of the electrical principle." 



The discovery of hitherto unknown and important criteria of the two electri- 

 cal states, or the proposal and proof of a new hypothesis on the nature of elec- 

 tricity, more closely corresponding with the phenomena than those already ad- 

 duced, though not made an express condition of success, will yet be regarded 

 with peculiar favor in the assignment of the prize. The time limited for com- 

 petition is the 31st of December, 18G7; the adjudication of the prize of two 

 hundred Austiian ducats will take place at the stated meeting of the year 1868. 

 The memoir offered for competition must not contain the name of the author, 

 but be inscribed, as usual, with a motto which will be repeated on a sealed 

 note communicating his name and address. At the regular meeting. May 30, 

 the note pertaining to the successful treatise will be opened, and the name an- 

 nouuced by the president. There will be no division of a prize among several 

 competitors, nor will members of the academy be allowed to enter the lists. 

 The preferred memoir will remain the property of its author, but will be pub- 

 lished, if he desires it, by the academy ; as will other memoirs adjudged worthy 

 •of publication, should the authors signify their wishes to that efi'ect. 



PROGRAMME OF THE PONTIFIC.VL ACADEMY OF THE NUOVI LINCEI. 



The academy, with the view of conferring the annual prize founded by the 

 testamentary liberality of one of its members in ordinary, the late Chevalier 

 PiKRHK Cai!PI, proposcs the discussion of the following theme : To discover a 

 method by means of which may be determined all the rational values of x capable 

 ■of reducing to a perfect square or cube the polynome A + Bx + C^i'^ + Dx^+Eaj'' 



