302 SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



Prize queftions. the Inftitute alone excepted, who (hall have made the ob" 

 fervation mod interefting, or pubiifned the memoir mod 

 ufeful to the pfogrefs of aftranomy, was in the public fitting 

 of the 6th Meffidor, decreed to M. Jofeph Piazzi, Profeflbr 

 Royal of Aftronomy and Direclor of the Obfervatory of 

 Palermo, for the wor.k which he has lately publimed under the 

 title : Prcccipuarum ftdlarum incrranlium poftiones medics 

 ineunte fceculo XIX. ex obfervathnibus habilis in j'pecula Pa- 

 normitana. Panormi, 1803, one volume in folio. 



The fubjedi of the mathematical prize propofed by the clafs, 

 in this fitting, is the following: To give the theory of the 

 perturbations of the planet Pallas, difcovered by M. Olbers." 

 The works are to be written in French or in Latin;- and are 

 to be received to the 1 ft Germinal in the year XIV. The 

 prize is a gold medal weighing a kilogramme. 



The academy of fciences, literature, and the fine arts of 

 Turin has propofed the following new prizes. 



Clafs of Phyfical and Mathematical Sciences. 



Firft Prize. The electric and galvanic fluids offer fo many 

 points of analogy, and fo great a number of different effe&s, 

 that many philofophers believe them to be identical, and many 

 others make them two difiinct fluids : 



New experiments are required ivhich JJiall decide, in a definitive 

 manner , on their identity or diver fity. 



Second Prize. It will be feen in the Connoifance des terns, 

 for the year XII. page 217, that the refiaclions which are 

 adopted do not fhovv an agreement in the obfervations of the 

 fummer and winter lblftices of the years 7, 8, and 9, to give 

 the fame obliquity of the ecliptic, as they fhould do ; and it 

 is clear that a difference, fuch as is found, of eight feconds 

 in the relult of the calculations, not of one obfervation, or 

 of two, but in the total of feveral, made on different days 

 of different years, muff have forne caufe : 



A f id factory explanation is demanded. 



Clafs of Literature and the Fine Arts. 

 Queftion propofed. To demonjlrate whether the economica'- 

 faience known by the name of Statiftics, is a new faience, and 

 Khat are the advantages Jlates may derive from it. 



The prize for each queffion is 600 francs ; and memoirs are 



to be received until the 30th Frimaire of the year XIII. 



They are to be written in Latin, French, or Italian, and 



5 fent 



