The Nineteenth Century 201 



and engineering. Christoph Bernoulli had been a Lehrer at the 

 Paedagogium at Halle and since 1817 professor of natural history 

 at the University of Basel. 



heinrich friedrich link 



In 1804 the Imperial Academy of Sciences at St. Petersburg 

 announced a prize of 500 rubles for 



a series of new and instructive experiments on light, considered as 

 matter, also on the properties which may in part be attributed to it; on 

 the affinities which it may appear to have, either to organized or unor- 

 ganized bodies, and upon the modifications and phenomena of these 

 substances, by their combinations with the matter of light. 



The conditions and handling of the prize essays are rather 

 interesting.'^ 



The manuscripts, unsigned except by a motto, were to be de- 

 posited with the Academy in 1806, together with a sealed note 

 marked with the motto and containing the name of the author. Six 

 manuscripts were received, with the following mottoes. 



No. 1 in Russian, by " A philosopher who has learn'd to doubt, 



knows more than all the learned." 

 No. 2 in Russian, by " Time is the earliest thing in nature, etc." 

 No. 3 in Latin, by " Is the color true or do reflections of light 



deceive the eye? " 

 No. 4 in French, by " Night is gone, nevertheless day has not yet 



arisen." 

 No. 5 in German, by "As you may know, things lack their fresh 



splendor, etc." 

 No. 6 in German, by " Physics will not be truly a science until 



all natural actions can be deduced from one and the same 



principle demonstrated with certainty." 



The Committee which awarded the prize decided that the first 

 three essays contained no new experiments and only well-known or 

 ill-expressed hypotheses. The fourth, although " not without merit " 

 also contained no new experiments and all four were rejected. The 

 fifth and six essays were accepted and given a joint prize, which went 

 to Dr. Heinrich Friedrich Link, professor of physic at the Uni- 

 versity of Rostock, and Mr. Placidus Heinrich, professor of physics 

 and mathematics at the Abbey of St. Emeran at Ratisbon. The first 

 four notes containing the names of the unsuccessful authors were 

 burned without being opened. This was the method of eliminating 



' From Phil. Mag. 28: 184-185. 1807. 



