266 
the report of the committee appointed 
to examine the merits of the different 
erformances. These Essays are con- 
ormable to the principal condition re- 
quired by the Academy, since they con- 
tain a great number of new experiments 
on the effects and properties of light, as 
well as a judicious application of those 
already known, and which the author 
himself verified whenever they appeared 
in the least dubious. Both Essays are 
executed on a judicious plan, they are 
written with clearness, and arranged in 
systematic order. It must, however, be 
admitted, that they contain some loose 
and contradictory conclusions, as well as 
a few propositions advanced without 
sufficient proof, besides a few other tri- 
vial errors. But as these imperfections 
are manifestly overbalanced by the value 
of the researches contained in these pro- 
ductions, the Academy, without adopting 
all the doctrines advanced by the authors, 
have thought it their duty to divide the 
prize equally between them, from con- 
ceiving them well deserving of this ho- 
nourable reward. 
On opening the sealed notes which 
accompanied these inact, Dr. Henry 
Frederick Link, professor of physic, in 
the University of Rostock, was discovered 
to be the author of No. 5, and Mr. Pla- 
cidus Heinrick, professor of natural phy- 
losophy and mathematics to the Abbey 
of St. Emeran, at Ratisbon, the author 
of No. 6. The notes belonging to the 
remaining tracts were committed to the 
flames without being opened. 
At the time the Academy announced 
the prize offered by the Marine Depart- 
“ment, for the best Essay on the resistance 
of fluids, they pledged themselves to 
make public the judgment, which they, 
in conjunction with ‘that department, 
- Should give respecting the different papers 
which would most probably be transmit- 
ted to them on the subject. Since that 
period, the following Memoirs have been 
received, 
No. 1. With the motto; Sif modus 
lasso maris et viarum militeque.” 
No. 2. With the following motto, 
© Prestat nature voce docert, quam in- 
- genio suo sapere.” 
No.3, With the following; “ England 
and France agree.” 
This last did not arrive till after the 
period limited. On examination, none 
of them were found conformable to the 
conditions prescribed by the Marine De- 
-partment: but No. 2 exhibits a new 
_ theory, which, though not built on sufii- 
Proceedings of Learned Societies. 
[Oct. l, 
ciently solid grounds, nor applied to naval 
architecture in the manner specified in. 
the Academy’s notice, yet, as it is in a 
great measure preferable to the theories 
of Romé, and of Don George Juan, 
and agrees better with experimerts than 
common theory, deserves to be advan- 
tageously noticed;the Marine Department 
therefore, in order to recompence the au- 
thor for his commendable exertions, 
have decreed to him the prize of one 
hundred Dutch ducats, which decision 
has been sanctioned by the approbation 
of the Academy. On pening the sealed 
note, the author was ‘discovered to be 
Mr. Zacarie Nordmark, professor of ma- 
thematics in the university of Upsal- 
During the same sitting, at which these 
prizes were distributed, ‘the Academy 
proposed the following question for the 
present year 1807. 
By chemistry we are taught the means 
of discovering the noxious qualities of 
mineral bodies, but it is only by empiri- 
cism that we have learned to distinguish 
noxious plants from those that are harm- 
less; even those characteristics which 
are most relied on, do not always attord 
sufficient criteria by whichto judge with — 
complete certainty respecting the pre- 
sence or absence of poison in vegetables, 
The livid colour, for instance, which 
renders many plants suspected, is by no 
means certainly to be relied on. 
bur (Arctium,) though a> wholesome 
plant, is of a ise chill colour; while, on 
the contrary, thelaurel, ( Daphne,) which 
is a deadly poison, is remarkable for the 
beauty of its flowers and foliage. ‘The 
families of Ranunculus and Witeibae are” 
equally beautiful and numerous, yet the 
greater number of them are possessed of 
noxious qualities. 
The same observation may be applied 
to the disagreeable odour exhaled by 
some plants, and which is regarded by 
many as afiording a certain test of their 
-noxious quality; this however, on inves- 
tigation, will be found equally = 
-aS sibanalee. 
The laurel, already mentioned, is of a- 
very agreeable hue, while the Orache 
( Chenopodium ) which is an innocent, and | 
even an useful plant, has a very disagree- 
able odour. That of the coriander. is 
likewise disagreeable to many, pers it 1g 
ofa very salutar v nature. 
The Umbelliterous plants which grow 
in damp and. humid situations, are 9@- 
nerally regarded as i nighit son notwith- 
standing which the Svson inundatum, and 
salsum the Phellandrium aguaticum, An- 
: gelica, 
The. 
