Abstract
LAST week the Paris Academy held its annual public meeting, when the prizes for 1878 were awarded. According to old custom, M. Fizeau, the president of last year, was in the chair. He remarked on the uuprecedentedly large number of prizes that were not awarded, either because there was no competition or because there were no competitors of sufficient merit. On this account several of the most important prizes have not been awarded this year, and it seems to be the common opinion that some of the problems proposed are much too difficult. M. Dumas read an éloge on M. Balard, the discoverer of bromine, and M. Bertrand did the lame for Leverrier. M. Bertrand made no allusion to the part taken by Leverrier in the public affairs of his time, and made but slight allusion to his organisation of the Meteorological Service, and that almost as if it were not a thing quite worthy of encomium. M. Bertrand's address does not seem to have given universal satisfaction, and several of the audience on leaving the hall were heard to say: “Quant à l'éloge de Leverrier il est encore a faire.” The following are the principal prizes awarded at the meeting:—The Extraordinary Prize of 6,000 francs for the greatest prgress in naval construction, to M. Perroy and Lieut. Baills; the Poncelet Prize in Mechanics to M. Maurice Lévy; the Montyon Prize of 1,000 francs, in Mechanics, to Mr. George H. Corliss, for his well-known engines; the Plumey Prize to Capt. Vallessie, for his differential counter to regulate the progress of steamships. In Astronomy the Lalande Prize was awarded to M. Stanislas Meunier, for his researches on meteorites; the Valz Prize to Dr. Julius Schmidt, for his lunar charts. In Physics the Bordin Prize was awarded to M. Reynard for his researches in connection with Ampère's law. In Chemistry the Jecker Prize was awarded to M. Reboul, specially for his memoir on the isomers in the propylene series. In Botany the Barbier Prize was given to M. Ch. Tauret, and encouragements of 500 francs each to M. Cauvet and M. E. Heckel; the Desmazières Prize to Dr. Bornet; the Shore Prize to Prof. Ardissone for his “Floridee Italiche;” in Anatomy and Zoology the Serres Prize was awarded to Prof. Alexander Agassiz, for his various embryological and other investigations; and the Montyon Prize in Physiology to M. Charles Rechet, for his researches on gastric juice. The Tremont Prize. was given to M. Marcel Deprez for his application of electricity to the solution of various problems in mechanics; the Gegner Prize to M. Gaugain; the Delalande Guérineau Prize to M. Savorgnan de Brazza, for his exploration of the Ogové River; and the Prize founded by Mdme. de Laplace to be awarded to the pupil who leaves the Polytechnic School with the highest honours, to M. de Béchevel.
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The Paris Academy Prizes . Nature 19, 475 (1879). https://doi.org/10.1038/019475a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/019475a0