Memoir of the Life of Dr. Thomas Young. 333 



He made an excursion to Spa and to Holland in 1821, and in this 

 year undertook the medical responsibility and the mathematical direc- 

 tion of a Society for Life Insurance, and declined all participation in 

 the speculation, but had the disinterested satisfaction of witnessing its 

 prosperity. This connexion led him into researches in which he 

 took great interest, and produced his ' Formula for Expressing the 

 Decrement of Human Life,' published in the Philosophical Trans- 

 actions for 1826 ; and a * Practical Application of the Doctrine of 

 Chances,' published in the Journal of Science for October in the 

 same year. 



In the previous year he had removed from Welbeck Street to a 

 house which he had built in Park Square, in the Regent's Park, where 

 he led the life of a philosopher, and expressed himself as having now 

 attained all the main objects he had looked forward to in life of his 

 hopes or his wishes ; this end being, to use his own words, * the pur- 

 suit of such fame as he valued, or such acquirements as he might 

 think to deserve it.' In 1827, he was elected one of the eight foreign 

 members of the Royal Institute of France. 



With the exception of the consumptive tendency by which his 

 youth had been visited, his health had hitherto been uninterrupted 

 by a day's serious illness. In the summer of 1828 he went to 

 Geneva, and appeared to suffer what was to him an unusual degree 

 of fatigue ; on great bodily exertion there was a perceptible dimi- 

 nution of strength, and symptoms of age appeared to come upon 

 him, which contrasted strongly with the freedom from complaints 

 he had hitherto enjoyed. 



The Committee of Finance having recommended to the Govern- 

 ment the abolition of the Board of Longitude, a bill was passed to 

 that effect, permitting the Admiralty to retain the officer entrusted 

 with the calculations of the Nautical Almanack : this occurred during 

 the time that Dr. Young was abroad, but he continued to execute 

 these duties. Whether the measure was well or ill founded we shall 

 not stay to inquire, but it produced great heart-burnings and discon- 

 tent amongst those scientific men who considered themselves or their 

 friends treated unhandsomely, as well as illiberally, in the manner 

 in which their services had been dispensed with. It appears that 

 the occasional assistance of men of science was found to be so 

 necessary to many departments connected with the Admiralty, that 

 it was found expedient to form a new council of three members for 

 the performance of duties which had before devolved on the Board 

 of Longitude, and for this purpose Dr. Young, Captain Sabine, and 

 Mr. Faraday, were appointed. 



The consequences of this change involved Dr. Young in more 

 labour than his declining state of health rendered him competent to 

 perfonn without injury, and exacerbated a complaint which must 

 have been long, though insensibly, in progress, but which now was 

 bringing him rapidly to a state of extreme debility. From the 

 month of February 1829, his illness continued with some slight 



