
1798.] 
taught genuiufes, whom no difadvantage 
of birth and education can deprefs. His 
origin was ob{cure; being born at Wo- 
burn, a few miles from hence. He came 
a country lad into this town, and attended 
behind the counter of an Enghth goods 
fhop, where he probably found the beft 
means of information that were afforded 
to his youth, From fuch an humbke ori- 
gin he has rifen to the higheft offices, 
civil and military, under the Duke of Ba- 
varia; and he, who was formerly known 
here by the name of Benjamin Thomp- 
fon, is now Count of Rumford, and, what 
is more, a philofopher and benefactor of 
mankind.—Salem Gazette. 
Mr. DYER, in confequence of unfore- 
feen engagements, and the advice of his 
friends, has been obliged to alter the plan 
of his Poetical Publication :—inftead of 
three volumes at a guinea, two only, con- 
fitting of poems and poetical eflays, will 
be publifhed at twelve fhillings. The firft 
volume will appear next month. ' 
At the annual meeting of the Royal 
Academy of Sciences at Berlin, on the 
oth of Auguit latt, the following quef- 
tion, which had been propofed for the 
prefent year, but to which only one an- 
fiver had been fent, and that not fuffici- 
ently fatisfagtery, was propofed a-new 
by ehe mathematical clafs, for the year 
1802, the prize being doubled. ‘* Asthe 
labours of the ableft aftronomers have left 
feveral points to be cleared up with re- 
fpeét to the change of the obliquity of 
the ecliptic, the academy invites the 
learned to inveitigate the fubject a-new, 
and will adjudge the prize to that eflay, 
which fhall contain the moft smportant 
inquiries concerning it.’* Aftronomers 
appear not to be unanimous with regard 
to the obfervations made refpecting the - 
obliquity of the ecliptic; the academy, 
theretore, wifhes thefe ob{fervations to be 
examined with care, as well as how far 
the ancient oblervations may be advan- 
tageoufly employed, and to what period 
we may go back for them... With refpect 
to the theory, one of the moit important 
¢lements undoubtedly is, to determine 
the quantity of matter in the planets that 
affect it, efpecially in Venus. It is par- 
ticularly to be inquired, how the quan- 
tity of matter in Venus may be deter- 
mined from a confideration of the move- 
ment of the nodes, notwithitanding the’ 
difficulties arifing from the mobility of 
the ecliptic: how a finaller quantity of 
matter, than is affigned to Venus by M. 
De La GRANGE, will agree. with the 
movement of the fin’s ap gec, with which 
it appears to be inconfticnt according to 
Moxraux Mac. No. xxviii, 
ARoyal Academy of Sciences at Berlin, 
no doubt. 
are 
the formulz of this great mathematician’: 
and, laftly, how far HERSCHEL’s ob- 
fervations of the fatellites of Uranus are 
fufficient to determine the mafs of this 
planet. The application of the general 
{olution of the problem would be fo much 
the more advantageous, if none of the 
planets were left out of confideration, as 
then the equations arifing from it might 
be compared with thofe, which Mr. Dx 
LA GRANGE has obtained from his folu- 
tion. And here the queftion fuggefted by 
huntelf might be examined, namely, whe- 
ther, let the maffes of the planets be what 
they may, fuppofing them only to exift, 
the equations would always have pofitive 
and unequal roots. With regard to the , 
determination of the mean values, maxi- 
ma and minima, periods of change, &c.. 
if a direct method of afcertaining them be 
offered, it will be neceffary, confidering 
the extreme complication of analytical 
expreflions, that the authof enter into a ~ 
precife expofition with great accuracy = 
if they be determined only by repeated 
trials (¢atonnement), it is required that 
the author at leaft bring proofs a paffe- 
riori, that the refults found are liable te 
‘The academy is far fram _ex- 
pecting, however, that all thele defiderate 
thould be fully and completely fupplied ; 
‘but wiil award the prize to that. effay, 
which, on a fubjeé fo difficult, thall give. 
new and fatisfactory conclufions refpeét- 
ing fome of the articles only: the extent 
given to the queftion being intended mere- 
ly to open a wider field to aftronomerg 
and mathematicians. 
The delles-lettres clafs propofed the fol- 
lowing queftion, for the year 1800: the 
prize, as ufual, a gold medal, of the va- 
lue of 50 ducats, or 221, 10s. ** Had the 
Goths, as a diftinguifhed nation, among 
thofe that overturned the declining Roman 
power, any thing peculiar, either in go- 
vernment, laws, manners, and cuftoms, 
or in literature, and the arts in particu- 
Jar? Arethe terms gothic, and gothicifm,: 
any thing more than words of later fa- 
brication, to defignate the ftate of art and 
{cience, fince the fall cf the Roman em- 
pire, through the middle age; andy if 
not, when did they begin to be in geue= 
ral ufe in this fenfe 2?” 
At the fame time, the phyfical clafs 
propofed the two following queitions, for 
the fame year, for the prizes founded by 
Mr. Cothemius, being 100 rix dollars 
each, or 161. 13s. ad. 1. “ As it is de 
cided, that the carbone, contained in the 
ordinary animial and vegetable manures, 
is one df the chief principles conducive to 
the nutujtion of plants, what fubitances 
4B are 
