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XXX. Proceedings of Leanted SoclelieSy Societies of ike 



Arts, &f: 



BATAVIAN SOCIETV OF THE SCIENCES AT HAARLEM. 



J- HIS society held its fifty-first yearly general meeting oa 

 the 21st of May, and, after examining the aiiSAvers seat la 

 to prize questions since the last meeting, resolved tocoutinye 

 the following to which no answers iiad been received : 



1st, What light has the new chemistry thrown cii our 

 knowledge of the nature of the hnniau body ? 



2d, How far have physicians, in consequence of the 

 light thrown on the nature of the lluman bodv by the new 

 chemistry, become better acquainted than before with tiiti 

 nature aiid causes of certain diseases ? and what conse- 

 quences, more or less conilrmed by experience aud useful to 

 tlie practice of medicine, can be thence deduced ? 



3d, How far has the new chemistry made physicians 

 fully acquainted with the action of certain medicines wliich 

 have either been long used or lately recommended r and \Abat 

 advantages arise from this knowledge in the treatment of 

 certain diseases ? 



As some celebrated philosophers, in their application of 

 the fiindamental principles of the new chemistry to the 

 knowledge of the human body, to diseases and tn the cum 

 of them, have indulged too nmch in hvpotiiesis not found- 

 ed on experience ; and as great injury must thereby arise tti 

 the practice of medicine, to which the new chemistrv seeni^ 

 to pron^.ite so mucli advantage, provided Lavoisier's rule of 

 admitting nothing in it which is not founded on experience 

 be observed ; the society requires that, in answering these 

 three questions, a distinction will be made between whai is 

 fully ]-)roved and what rests on weak grounds, and tliat the 

 uncertainty of the latter only will be briefly pointed out- 



4th, How far are the causes of the corruption of stag- 

 nant water known? And from what is alrc^ady knov.n and 

 can l>e proved on the subject, what are the best and least 

 hurtful means which can be employed to preserve stagnajit 

 water from cormption ? 



The answers to these questions are to be sent in before 

 the 1st of November, 1804. 



The following questions arc again proposed' to be an- 

 swered before the l st of January, i bU4 : 



A natural history and description of whales, to ser\e as 

 the uican'i of tracing out the placci where these aiiinjali 

 arc to be found ; together with tlie sallsit and best methods 



eiUiuf 



