466 Proceedings of the Royal Soeiety 
to think that the east wind has become less disagreeable or cold 
since that date, it might have been consolatory to know to what 
these attributes were due. At all events the question remains un- 
fortunately as prominently for determination in 1884 as it existed 
in 1787. 
In the first volume of the Transactions a very singular problem 
was presented through Mr Adam Smith to the Society, along with 
other learned bodies in Europe, by a Hungarian nobleman, Count 
Windischgratz, and a prize was offered by him of 1000 ducats for 
the best solution of it, and of 500 ducats for an approximation to a 
solution. It M^as a bold effort of philanthropy, for its object was 
the abolition of lawyers for the future. The problem was addressed 
to the learned of all nations. It was couched in Latin, but was in 
substance this : — “ To find formulte by which any person might 
bind himself, or transfer any property to another, from any motive, 
or under any conditions, the formulae to be such as should fit every 
possible case, and be as free from doubt, and as little liable to con- 
troversy, as the terms used in mathematics.” I suppose that the 
prospect here held out of dispensing for the future with the least 
popular of the learned professions, inclined the Society to entertain 
it favourably, for they proceeded to invite solutions of the problem, 
and three were received by them. In 1788 we find it recorded in 
the minutes that Mr Commissioner Smith (for so the author of the 
Wealth of Nations was designed) reported the opinion of the com- 
mittee that none of the three dissertations amounted to a solution, 
or an approximation to a solution of that problem ; but that one 
of these, with a certain motto, although neither a solution or an 
approximation to a solution, was a work of great merit ; and Mr 
Fraser Tytler was instructed to inform Count Windischgratz of their 
opinion. Whether this meritorious dissertation obtained the 500 
ducats or no, we are not informed ; but as lawyers continue to 
flourish, and legal terminology to produce disputes as prolifically as 
ever, it seems clear that the author had not earned them. 
How that we have an observatory on Ben Hevis, our successors at 
the end of next century will know accurately the conditions of the 
climate under which the hundred years have been spent. There 
are, however, some details scattered over these volumes which are 
sufficiently interesting, although whether they show any material 
