64 Rifci Literary and Fhilosophical Sodely. 



meeting. Two essays were received ; that whieh was marked 

 No. 2. was totally uucoimectcd with the sultject of discussion in 

 the contemplation of the Class. 



Tlie essay No. 1 . had for its device these words of Bacon : 

 Srd /(uisf muxhnuin progressil'Ui scie7itiarj;m et novis pensis ac 

 prnvi/idis in iisdem su.^ripie/idis olstncnlum dcprehenditur in 

 desperntionc Iwmhiinn ct siippdsilwnt' inipossih'dis. The ana- 

 lysis which the author of this memoir has employed to attain 

 his fiindamental equation, has been judged altogether inaccu- 

 rate, and this equation even seemed in no maimer to result from 

 this analysis ; but that part of the memoir which contains the 

 comparison of the theory with the experiments of M. Chladni, 

 being drawn up with accuracy, and leading in general to satis- 

 factory results, the Class considered it worthy of honourable 

 mention. 



The same subject is again proposed on the same conditions : 

 viz. a gold medal of the vahie of 3000 francs, to be awarded on 

 the first Monday of January 1816. 



Tlie Class had proposed as the subject of a mathematical 

 prize question, to be decided at the ])rescnt sitting, the follow- 

 ing : " Determine by calculation, and confirm by experiment, 

 the manner in which electricity is distributed over^ the surface 

 of electrical bodies, and considered both as insulated and as in 

 presence of each other ; for instance, on the surface of two 

 electrified sph-eres, and in presence of each otlier. In order t» 

 simpli'iy the problem, the Cass only requires the examination 

 of the cases in which electricity spread over every surface re- 

 mains always of the same nature." 



None of the papers transmitted in answer to the above having 

 been deemed worthy of tlie prize, the question was withdrawn. 



The Class has not been [iiade acquainted this year with any 

 work which merits the prize for Galvanism, as instituted by 

 Bonaparte. 



The medal given Ijy Lalande " for the observation of most 

 interest or the memoir of most utility to astronomy, which shall 

 have appeared in the course of the year," has been adjudged to 

 M. d'Aussy jun. as a mark of encouragement, and on account 

 of an extensive work on the perturbat'ons and elliptical ele- 

 ments of the planet \'esta. Th.is young astronomer is also ad- 

 vantageously known from the elements which he has given of the 

 orbits of several comets. 



A literary and philosophical society has recently been esta- 

 blished at Riga. The members meet twice a month to consult 

 as to the best means of diffusing knowledge, and facilitating the 

 study of political oeconomy, natural history, chemistry, and 



comm«rce. 



