6io 



NA TURE 



[April 28, 1898 



balloon protected the net from snow. Andree's plan was 

 to keep the balloon within a few hundred feet of the 

 ground by the use of heavy guide-ropes dragging over 

 the ice or through the sea, a device which serves as an 

 automatic regulator of height. 



The erection of the balloon-shed, gas-generators, and 

 the inflation of the balloon in the far north of Spits- 

 bergen formed a very neat piece of engineering, of which 

 the Paris firm and their Swedish colleagues may well be 

 proud. We may recall the facts of the departure. The 

 balloon glided through the demolished north side of its 

 shed at 2.30 p.m. on Sunday, July 11, 1897, and slowly 

 swept northwards across the bay and over the low hills 

 on the horizon. The last authentic pigeon-message 

 received runs: "July 13. 12.30 p.m. 82" 2' N. lat., 

 15° 5' E. long. Good journey E. 10° S. All well on 

 board. This is the third pigeon-post.— Andr^/' 



Beyond this all is conjecture ; but before adopting 

 pessimistic views as to the fate of Andree, Strindberg 



valid foundation for the mathematical treatment of 

 natural phenomena. Such a groundwork as this was 

 quite naturally introduced by the discoverers of the 

 differential and integral calculus. More recently, however, 

 the progress of mathematical investigation has shown 

 generally that this is founded on a great number of 

 implicit suppositions to which we, in consequence of the 

 inaccuracies of our sensitive perceptions, are not bound. 

 Further, the assumption of the molecular constitution 

 of matter is from the first in contradiction with well- 

 known laws. 



The Faculty wishes to receive a work of real scientific 

 interest in which such questions will be treated in a 

 general intelligent way, and in which a minute examination 

 will be made regarding the admissibilty in relation to the 

 appropriateness of the usual mode of representation. 

 Communications may be mathematically or philosoph- 

 ically and psychologically inclined, and historical studies 

 are desired but not demanded. 



Fig. 2. — The balloon on its departure, showing guide-ropes. 



and Fraenkel, we should remember how few believed 

 in July 1896 that the Fram would ever return. There is 

 still hope for the crew of the Omen. 



Hugh Roi5ert Mill. 



T' 



THE BENEKE PRIZES. 



'HE Philosophical Faculty of the Georg-Augusts- 

 Uniyersity of Gottingen has just published the 

 following information concerning the Beneke prizes for 

 the years 1897 and 1901. On March 11, 1898, the birth- 

 day of Carl Gustav Beneke the founder of this prize, it 

 was announced that no communication had been sent in 

 for the prize competition for the year 1897. At the same 

 time the Philosophical Faculty set the following problem 

 for the year 1901. 



The principle of continuity, or more exactly the repre- 

 sentation by functions which can be indefinitely differen- 

 tiated, has for a long time been regarded as a general 



NO. 1487. VOL. 57] 



Papers competing for this prize must be written in a 

 modern language, and will be received by the Dekan of 

 the Philosophical Faculty up to August 31, 1900. A 

 motto should be written on the title-page of the work and 

 on the outside of a sealed letter which must accompany 

 it, containing the name, profession, and address of the 

 sender. In no other way can the name of the author be 

 communicated. It is further requested that the address 

 of the sender should be also written on the title-page, in 

 case the prize should not be awarded to it. The first 

 prize amounts to 3400 marks, and the second to 680 

 marks. 



The prizes will be awai'ded on March 11, 1901, at a 

 meeting of the Philosophical Faculty in Gottingen. The 

 communications to which prizes are awarded remain the 

 property of the authors. The prize problems, for which 

 the competitive papers must be sent in by August 31, 

 1898, and August 31, 1899, will be found given in the 

 Koniglicheti Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften Geschaftl. 

 Mittheilimgen, 1896, S. 69, 1897, Heft, i, S. 26. 



