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province of that institution, especially in conjunction with the two 
other great County Societies, to discuss, and, if possible, to find 
some remedy for the evil. Mr. Tremenheere, the other day, at the 
Geological Society's meeting at Penzance, suggested that they 
should have a body of teachers at Penzance, to give lectures and 
instruction on scientific subjects, but Dr. Barham thought Pen- 
zance would not be able to support such a body of teachers. The 
better way would be for the different scientific institutions in the 
county to unite and each have a teacher, who would have classes 
in each town or central place, and with the support which they 
might obtain from the Government the scheme might be practic- 
able. .The diagrams he exhibited were derived chiefly from the 
report of the last commission which sat on the subject, and the 
results arrived at by Dr. Farr, the Registrar-General. These 
results for Durham and Northumberland showed that mining or 
working underground was not of itself by any means necessarily 
the cause of great mortality. Up to a certain age there was not 
much difference in the health of the miner and that of the general. 
population, but when they came up to the ages between 40 and 
60 there was a very great difference in favour of the general 
population. There were many more deaths from what was called 
consumption, amongst the miners in Cornwall than in any other 
mining district in England, but at an early age there were fewer 
than in any other district. He thought it was his duty to bring 
this matter before the meeting, with the view of ascertaining more 
exactly what the cause of this increased mortality was; and 
whether from such bodies as that some suggestion might not be 
thrown out which might moderate the evil. He thought science 
could not ke better applied than in lessening such an evil as that. 
With regard to heart disease, he should say that it was not more 
fatal amongst miners than amongst the population generally ; and 
with reference to accidents, they were less numerous in Cornwall 
than in other mining districts, and only slightly more frequent 
than amongst the population generally. A certain proportion of 
the miners quitted the employment after a time, and took to 
farming and other pursuits ; for these, and for emigrants, some cor- 
rections must be made in our estimates from mortuary registers. 
Taking the general mortality amongst miners now, it was little if 
at all improved compared to what it was when the first commission 
was held on the subject. 
The CHAIRMAN said, perhaps it might not be out of place to 
mention a circumstance or two noticed by his friend and neighbour, 
Mr. Higgs of Penzance, who was long a considerable—if not 
indeed the principal—manufacturer of mining-candles in the West, 
