s Inscriptions et Belle-Lettres_; third, the
_Academie Royale des Sciences_; fourth, the _Academie Royale des Beaux
Arts_; and fifth, the _Academie Royale des Sciences Morales et
Politiques_. Members of one academy are eligible to the other four, and
each receives a salary of three hundred dollars. The Institute has a
library common to the five academies, the whole number of members
amounting to two hundred and seventeen. If a member does not attend the
proceedings and discussions, and cannot give a good reason for his
absence, he is liable to expulsion.

The _Academie Francaise_ consists of forty members, who are devoted to
the composition of the dictionary and the purification of the French
language. An annual prize is awarded of two thousand francs for poetry,
a prize of ten thousand francs for the best work of French history and
fifteen hundred francs is given every other year to some deserving but
poor student, for his attainments.

The Belle-Lettres Academy is composed of forty members, and ten free
academicians--the latter receive no salary. It has many foreign
associates or honorary members. Its members pursue the study of the
learned languages, antiquities, etc. etc. A yearly prize of ten thousand
francs is awarded by it for memoirs, and another for medals.

The Academy of Sciences has sixty-five members, beside ten free
academicians. It is divided into eleven sections, as follows: six
members are devoted to geometry, six to mechanics, six to astronomy, six
to geography and navigation, three to general philosophy, six to
chemistry, six to minerology, six to botany, six to rural economy and
the veterinary art, six to anatomy and geology, six to medicine and
surgery. Prizes are awarded by this academy, yearly, for physical
sciences, statistics, physiology, mechanics, improvements in surgery and
medicine; for improvements in the art of treating patients, for
rendering any art or trade less insalubrious, for discoveries, for
mathematical studies, and also a prize to the best scholar in the
Polytechnic school.

The Academy of Fine Arts has forty members, who are divided into five
sections--painting, sculpture, architecture, engraving, and musical
composition. It awards prizes to the best students in the arts, and
sends to the French Academy at Rome, free of all expense, the successful
students, who are educated at the expense of the state.

The Academy of _Sciences Morales et Politiques_ has thirty members,
di