434 PEIZE-QUESTIONS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 



The committee have selected for the prize-competition in 1876 the 

 following literary subject : " Trace the origin of the Belgian school of 

 music, and determine to what period the old masters of that school fol- 

 lowed the French and English musicians of the twelfth and thirteenth 

 centuries." 



A prize of 1,000 francs will be awarded for the solution of this 

 question. 



Brussels, session of November 6, 1872. 



For the department of fine arts, 



A. QUETELET, 



Permanent Secretary. 



EOYAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCE, LITEEATURE AND FINE 

 AETS, BEUSSELS, BELGIUM. 



CLASS OF SCIENCE. 



Frise- questions for 1874. 



FIRST QUESTION. 



To perfect, in some important particular, either in its principles or in 



its applications, the theory of the functions of an imaginary variable. 



SECOND QUESTION. 



To give a complete discussion of the question of the temperature of 

 space, based upon exijeriments, observation, and calculation, giving the 

 reason for the choice made among the different temperatures which 

 have been ascribed to it. 



We deem it necessary to explain to the competitors that the question, 

 in its most general terms, refers to the determination of the absolute zero, 

 definitely fixed at —272°. 85 C; ( — 459° 13 F.) but ahistorical and analyti- 

 .cal discussion of the investigations undertaken previously to 1820, for the 

 purpose of deciding this question, will prove of real scientific interest. 

 Attention is particularly directed to the investigations made at the 

 close of the eighteenth century and the commencement of the nine- 

 teenth, among others those of Black, Irvine, Crawford, Gadolin, Kir- 

 wan, Lavoisier, Lavoisier and Laplace, Dalton, Desormes and Clement, 

 Gay Lussac, &c. Mention is also made of the temperature of —160°, 

 0. ( — 256° F.) given by Person, according to his formula, which connects 

 the latent heat of fusion with specific heat j this number representing the 

 absolute zero. As it agrees very nearly with that given by Pouillet, it 

 will be important to discover its signification, its sense, or its exact phy- 

 sical value. 



THIRD QUESTION. 



To give a complete theoretical and experimental investigation of the 

 absolute specific heat of simple and compound bodies. 



