Tod » Prize Queftions, 
required that the author will at leaft bring proofs 2 pofteriori, 
that the refults found are fubjeé to no doubt. To conelude, 
the academy is far from requiring that all thefe conditions 
fhould be fully and completely complied with. It will, 
without hefitation, adjudge the prize to that paper which 
fhall prefent new and fatisfa€tory conclufions im’ regard to 
one article only of fo abftrufe a matter; for it has given 
fuch extent to the queftion, merely to open a wider field to. 
thofe who are fond of employing their time in aftronomicak 
refearches.”’ 
BELLES LETTRES. 
The clafs of the Belles Lettres has announced the follow- 
ing prize-queftion for the year 1800: 
On the Goths and Gothicifm. 
“zy, Had the Goths, as a nation particularly diftin- 
guifhed among thofe which overturned the Roman empire 
in its decline, any thing peculiar either in their difpofition, 
laws, manners, and cuftoms, or in regard to their litera- 
ture and arts ? 
«2, Are the expreffions Gothic and Gothicifm any thing 
elfe than appellations employed at later periods to indicate 
the general {tate of the arts and fciences after the downfall 
of the Roman empire, and in the middle ages? And, 
‘<3. If this be true, when did the above expreffions begin 
to be introduced into common ufe ?”’ 
PHYSICS. 
The Phyfieal clafs has announced the following queftions : 
' “ The late M. Cothenius having left to the academy, of 
which he was a member, a legacy of a thoufand dollars, and 
two years intereft due on the fame, to be diftributed as 
prizes for anfwers to queftions in agriculture, economy, and 
gardening, the phyfical clafs, to which the difpofal of this 
money was entrufted, finds itfelf at prefent enabled to pro- 
pofe two queftions, at the fame time, in regard to the above 
nek fubjects, 
