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The candidates to be Members of the College, not on the Court of Assistants. Dissertations to be in English, and the number and importance of facts will be considered principal points of excellence. Each dissertation to be distinguished by a motto or device, and accompanied by a paper sealed up containing the name and address of the author, and having on the outside a motto or device corresponding with that on the dissertation. No dissertation, nor motto or device, to be in the hand-writing of the author, nor sealed paper to have the impression of his seal. Dissertations to be delivered to the Secretary, at the College, before Christmas-day, 1820. Those that are unapproved of, will be returned on authenticated application.

The Prize subject for the present year is, The treatment of morbid local Affections of Nerves. To promote the knowledge of which, it is required that a minute dissection of the nerves of the cervical portion of the Medulla Spinalis, and of their communications with other nerves, be made; and it is expected that such dissections be authenticated by preparations of the dissected parts.

Dissertations to be delivered at the College before Christmasday next.

IV. GENERAL LITERATURE, &c.

1. Comparative Table of the Extent, Population, Riches, Debts, Revenues, and Taxes, of Great Britain and France, for the year

1819.

Surface

Population....

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12,600,000 ind.

29,827,000

Agricultural Capital......61,000,000,000 fr. 57,522,000,000

Gross produce of Agri-3,875,000,000

culture

...... .....

Net produce ditto........ 1,461,300,000

4,679,000,000

1,345,000,000

1,404,000,000

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Gross produce of Manu-2,250,000,000

facturing Industry

Horses, Mules, &c.

Oxen, &c.

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The population of Great Britain and Ireland is, according to the best authorities, about 17,000,000 souls.

2. Scientific Expedition.-A steam-boat is to be launched at Pittsburgh, to be employed in an expedition to the Yellow Stone River; the object of which is to obtain a history of the inhabitants, soil, minerals, and curiosities. Major Long, of New Hampshire, topographical engineer; Mr. Graham, of Virginia; Mr. Wm. H. Swift of Massachusetts, from the military academy; Major Biddle, of the artillery; Dr. Jessup, mineralogist; Dr. Say, botanist and geologist; Dr. Baldwin, zoologist and physician; Mr. Peale, of Philadelphia, landscape painter and ornithologist; Mr. Seymour, ditto; and Major Fallow, of the Indian department, form the expedition. The boat is 75 feet long, 13 beam, draws 19 inches water, and is well armed; she carries on her flag a white man and an indian shaking hands, the calumet of peace, and the sword. Her machinery is fixed to avoid the snap and sawyers of the rivers. The expedition has the best wishes of the lovers of science.

3. German Universities.-The disturbances connected with the Universities of Germany, appear to have had considerable effect upon the number of Students belonging to them. Formerly Gottingen reckoned more than a thousand students; but from a late estimate it appeared to have only 770. Halle has 500; Breslau has 366; Heidelberg has 363; Gressen has 241; Marburgh has 197; Kiel has 107; Rostock has 160; Greifs

wald has 55; Landshut has 640; Tubingen has 698; Berlin has 942; Leipsic has 911; Jena has 634; Vienna has 957; and Prague has 880. The whole number is 8,421 in the sixteen principal Universities of Germany.

4. Swedish Universities.-The Universities of Sweden are in a very flourishing state. In the first quarter of this year the number of Students at Upsal amounted to 1,197, and those of Lund to 600. The whole of the establishments of the kingdom professing to communicate classical education, contained 3,485 scholars. These establishments cost the state annually about £60,000; of which £4,000 is employed in the maintenance of youth during the course of their studies, in cases where such assistance is wanted.

5. Suicides in Paris.-The number of suicides committed and attempted in Paris and its environs in the four months of January, February, March, and April, amounted to 124. Of these persons 33 were women; 64 of them were single, and 60 had been married. The greater number destroyed life by the use of fire arms, the vapour of charcoal, or by drowning: 46 resorted to the last method. This period of the first four months of this year, compared with the same period of the last year, offers an excess of 41 suicides.

By the end of June the number amounted to 199, of which 137 were committed by men, and 62 by women: 102 of these were married, and 97 were unmarried. These have been arranged in a sort of scale according to the causes, thus-for love, 17; illness, distaste of life, insanity, domestic trouble, 65; bad conduct, gaming, lottery, 28; misery, poverty, deranged affairs, 47; fear of reproaches and punishment, 6; unknown motives, 36; in the whole 199, of which 53 were unsuccessful attempts, and 146 were completed.

6. Search of the Tiber and Pompeia.-The search of the Tiber has commenced at Rome, but it is said with but little success.

The excavations at Pompeia are carried on very successfully, and several new edifices are said to have been discovered in the street which leads to the Temple of Isis, to that of Hercules, and to the Theatre. Some surgical instruments, of good workmanship, are described to have been found.

7. New Scientific Establishment at Bath.-It is proposed to form in Bath an Institution for the cultivation of Science, Literature, and the Liberal Arts.

The Institution to consist of a house and establishment, comprising the following accommodations: namely, a library and reading-room, from which newspapers and political pamphlets shall be excluded; a botanic garden; a museum of natural history; a cabinet of mineralogy; a cabinet of antiquities; a cabinet of coins and medals; a hall for lectures, with suitable apparatus for the courses on chemistry and the several branches of natural philosophy.

To these will be added an exhibition gallery, for the reception and display of paintings and other works of the fine arts.

The funds to be raised by subscriptions for shares of £50 each, and the right of property to be vested in the subscribers. The incorporation of the subscribers to take place under a Legislative Charter.

The management of the Institution to be conducted by a Board of Directors.

The Institution to be open to annual and life subscribers.

A capital sum of thirty thousand pounds will be required for carrying the general purposes into effect. Twenty thousand pounds to be disposable in the purchase of premises, erecting the necessary buildings, and fitting up the Institution in a suitable manner; and ten thousand pounds to form a reserved fund, the interest of which shall be applicable to defraying the annual expenses.

No active proceedings to be commenced, until there shall be subscriptions for at least 300 shares.

The Provisional Constitution of the intended Establishment

may be inspected at the Treasurer's, Messrs. Cavenagh and Co., by those who may wish for more full and precise information previously to subscribing.

The amount of subscription will be taken by instalments of sums not exceeding five pounds, and at intervals not shorter than three months.

8. Prospectus of a work to be entitled Hieroglyphics, collected by the Egyptian Society.-The triple Inscription of Rosetta having afforded a prospect of the partial interpretation of the Egyptian hieroglyphics in general, it becomes a matter of high importance, for the advancement of literature and of the study of antiquities, to collect and preserve all the remains of the Hieroglyphical Inscriptions and Manuscripts, which have hitherto escaped the injuries of time. For this purpose, the efforts of a single individual would probably be too feeble, and the duration of a single life might possibly be too short: but it may be effected with much more ease, and with far greater certainty, by the continued co-operation of a select Society, determined to keep it constantly in view.

The process of lithography affords a ready mode of obtaining a moderate number of copies of a drawing at a cheap rate. The object of this collection being to exhibit perfectly correct representations of the greatest possible extent of materials for a limited sum, the introduction of any unnecessary ornament would obviously be inconsistent with its complete attainment; and the delineation of all works of art, as such, must, for the same reason, be excluded.

It will naturally be desirable to select, in the first instance, in order for their permanent preservation, such inscriptions and manuscripts as have not yet been published; but it is intended that the work should ultimately comprehend every thing of the kind that can be obtained; not only because some of the most important materials are thinly scattered through a variety of magnificent and expensive works, but also because such a collection would afford a very great convenience, both for study and for

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