ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE INSTITUTE OF BOLOGNA. 437 

 PROGRAMME 



OF THE 



ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE INSTITUTE OF BOLOGNA 



IN REFERENCE TO TIIF, 



ALDINI PKIZE FOE RESEARCHES IN GALVANISM, FOR THE YEAR 18Cu. 



No memoir having been presented for competition in 1862, the same subject 

 if? again proposed; and in view of its great importance, and the no slight diffi- 

 culties attending it, the prize is increased and its conditions modified as follows : 



The muscles and nerves of the frog are seats of electrical currents, Avliich 

 liavc given occasion to two dissertations crowned by this academy, and elabo- 

 rated by the chemical professors, Grimelli and Cima, to answer two inquiries 

 proposed for competition for the Aldini prize. On the authority, chiefly, of a 

 very recent publication by M. Budge, professor in the University of Griefswald, 

 the skin is also ass(;rted to be the seat of an electrical current in the frog. The 

 academy, which has always sought to know clearly and accurately how much 

 has been ascertained in point of electricity with regard to that animal from 

 which galvanism had its origin, cannot but desire also to know how much has 

 been since discovered respecting the same, and of course how much should be 

 referred to the last-mentioned current. It proposes therefore the following 



INdUIRV. 



1st. To examine and explain whatever of consequence has been ascertained 

 by physicists and physiologists, since the above-mentioned dissertations of Pro- 

 fessors Grimelli and Oima, respecting the muscular and nervous currents, as 

 well as those of contraction in the frog; and above all, the real importance of 

 the electro-tonic state of the nerves, by no means inconsiderable according to 

 the careful researches of M. Pflugcr, but almost nothing in the opinion of the 

 above-named M. Budge. And 



2d. To investigate by precise and conclusive experiments whether an elec- 

 tric current really manifests itself in the skin of the frog, and, if tlie result be 

 affirmative, what are the laws of this current; should it be regarded or not as n 

 physiological phenomena; and has it any dependence on the other currents? 



The academy wishes that the analogous facts observed in other aniraah 

 should not be dissociated from those relative to the frog, but that the former 

 should be refcn-ed to and discussed, thus reuniting in one whatever is well- 

 known about the animal economy in relation to the object of this discussion, 

 and within the limit assigned to this competition. 



A prize of two thousand Italian llrcs (nearly $300) will be paid to the author of 

 the paper which, under the above-mentioned terras and conditions, shall present, 

 in the judgment of this academy, the best solution of the proposed in(|uiry. 



ilemoirs intended for competition nuist reach Bologna, j'ostage paid, within 

 the month of December, 1865, plainly addressed to the secretary of the 

 Academy of Sciences of the Institute of Bologna. Tliis limit is imperative, 

 and therefore memoirs will not be received for competition which arrive aft<>r 

 the last day of the month mentioned. The memoirs must be written in Italian, 

 Ijatin or French, in characters easily legible. The academy requests the 

 greatest exactness in quotations from printed works, and the highest authen- 

 ticity in the written documents, to which the authoi-s may have recourse for the 



