TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 217 



On the Influence of the Sun-sjjot Period upon the Price of Corn. 

 B>/ Prof. W, SiAiiLBT Jevons, F.R.S. 



On the prevailing Mode of Preparation for Competitive Examinations. 



By J). Mackintosh. 



On the Value of European Life in India in its Social, Political, and Ec.onomic 

 Aspects. By F. J. Mouat, M.D., F.P.C.S., formerly Professor of Medicine 

 and Medical Jurisprudence in the Medical College of Calcutta, 6fc. 



The intention of tins paper is to sliow tliat the high mortality rates which 

 have heretofore prevailed in India among civil and military lives were not neces- 

 sarily due to climatic causes or to unavoidable tropical risks, hut were largely 

 attributable to bad hy<rieuic conditions, imprudence of living, unnecessary or reck- 

 less exposure, and similar agencies. All of these were shown to be either removable 

 by sanitary measures or to be so much within the personal control of individuals 

 as to reduce the inevitable risks to life of residence or service in India to a very 

 moderate degree above the chances of prolonged existence in more temperate 

 climates. In support of this view carefully prepared tables were produced of the 

 deaths and invaliding among the European otiicers of H.M. British forces serving 

 in India from 18(31-70 inclusive. In these tables proof was aflbrded that in India 

 diseases of the abdominal organs take the place of the contents of the chest in 

 (jreat Britain as causing mortality, and that phthisis alone in the latter country 

 destroyed a larger ratio of persons in the active period of life than cholera, hepatic 

 disease, and dysentery combined did of Europeans in India ; while from all ordinary 

 causes and diseases there was no material difference between the casualties of 

 India and those of England. 



The gi-adual diminution of the death-rate in the English army in India within 

 the present century from 69 to 15 per thousand, the reduction of the ratio for 

 civil life in the covenanted services in a similar proportion, and the ascertained 

 death-rate of carefully selected European railway employes in India, 10 per 1000, 

 were all shown in their bearings on this great and important question. 



The conclusions at which Dr. Mouat arrived were, that in carefully selected lives 

 of persons of prudent habits, in moderately comfortable circumstances, the risks to 

 life in India were so little above those of England as to render it perfectly safe to 

 insure those lives at English rates, which rates are known to be largely in excess of 

 the estimated and ascertained value of selected lives at home at corresponding ages. 

 Dr. Mouat also considered briefly the question of the colonization of India by 

 European settlers. This he regarded very much as a question of race ; and while 

 he doubted the possibility of such colonization of tropical plains by the inhabitants 

 of Northern Europe, he was of opinion that on the Steppes of Central Asia and 

 the mountain-ranges of Hindostan it woidd be possible to rear as healthy, vigorous, 

 manly, and intelligent a people as in any country in the world. 



As" a social problem it was of great importance to determine that health and 

 strength could be maintained in India at no undue risk; as a political question 

 it had equally important bearings on the large drain upon the manhood of Great 

 Britain necessary for the maintenance of our Eastern Empire ; and as an economic 

 question it was scarcely secondaiy in interest, as affording a wide and productive 

 Held for English capital and enterprise in assisting to develop the vast resources of 

 that great dependency of England. 



On Legislative Protection to the Birds of Europe. 

 By C. 0. Groom Napieb, F.G.S., M.A.I. 



The author said that in 1864 he brought before the Association ten Tables on 

 the Eood of Birds as a plea for their legislative protection. 



Having published the paper in the form of a small book, he had received 

 acknowledgments from members of the Committee in the House of Commons or 

 the Wild Birds' Protection Bills that his work had been the text-book of theix 



1875. IG 



