458 PRIZE QUESTIONS. 



poTtance of its culture and employment in the north of France and in Belgftim. 

 3. To prepare a practical guide for the construction and employincnt of steam 

 generators, recapitulating, as briefly as possible and in simple and unscientific 

 language, the rules and numerical data furnished by the most certain and re- 

 cent researches and experiments with reference to the construction of boilers, 

 furnaces, chimneys, and in regard to the management of the fire. 4. To indi- 

 cate a simple process, industrially practical and economic, for rendering 

 paponifiable the oily matter extracted from the washings of wool. To con- 

 eider the subject also in its commercial application. 



IV. AGRICULTURE. 



Questions proposed for tJie competition of 1866. — 1. To make a comparative 

 analysis of all or part of the kinds of calcareous substances which are made 

 use of in the north of France, whether for the limino; or marling of land. To 

 indicate the repositories and physical characters, of these substances. 2. To 

 show the different modes of liming and marling practiced in the north of France, 

 specifying for each several soil the quantities of lime or marl adopted in dif- 

 ferent localities, as well as the duration of the liming or marling ; also, the •iiet 

 cost of these two operations in each locality. 3. To give the statistics, with 

 proofs and illustrations, of the agricultural state of the arroudissemeut of Lille, 

 from 1850 to 1864. 



V. SOCIAL AND STATISTICAL ECO.MOMY. 



Questions j>roposed for tJie competition of 1866. — 1. A view of the societies 

 for mutual succor among workingmeu (called Societies of the Sick) which ex- 

 isted at Lille previous to 1789, their organization, and results. 2. To de- 

 termine, by means of administrative acts, pubhc documents or incontestable 

 private records, the variations which the price of a day's work has undergone 

 within a century at Lille and in the arrondissement ; comparing therewith the 

 price of the hectolitre of wheat as well as other objects of prime necessity 

 during the same period, drawn from similar sources of information. 3. An 

 historical account of one of the chief industries of the department of the north, 

 (manufacture of sugar, of potash of the beet, of soap, distilling, rotting of flax, 

 spinning and weaving, &c.,) stating the different phases of its development, 

 and indicating its probable career in the future. The present state of the in- 

 dustry selected for consideration should be established by statistics, whose ele- 

 ments, derived from official sources, shall be susceptible of verification. 



VI. LEGISLATION. 



Questions proposed for the competition of 1866. — 1. On the legislation of 

 vrehends before and since the revolutionary period ; the advantages and incon- 

 veniences of these sorts of foundations. 2. Researches respecting the legisla- 

 tion for annoying or unhealthful establishments in the city of Lille previous to 

 the decree of 1810. 



VII. HISTORY. 



Questions for the coinpctition of 1866. — 1. To indicate the physical topog- 

 raphy of maritime Flanders from the Roman conquest, embracing a discussion, 

 under a critically scientific point of view and based upon geological, geographi- 

 cal, and archa?ological documents, of the different o])inions heretofore main- 

 tained upon this subject ; also, an inquiry whether there exist in the depart- 

 ment remains of human industry which may be referred to the age of stone. 

 2. History of some rural commune of the department of the north. 3. History 

 of the judicial organization of the different provinces which now constitute the 

 department of the north from the invasion of the barbarians to 1789. 4. No- 



