1831.] 
Chemical Analyses. 
277 
year, which column would have furnished more exact data than column two for 
calculating the mortality at each period of service; as, for instance, suppose that in 
ten years, from 1799, there were 217 appointments, (quere, arrivals?) of which 
20 occurred in the first year, and two died in the course thereof ; the mortality 
would not be two in 852, but two in 20, or 10 per cent. ?-and although at 
the end of the 10 years it might be 77 in the aggregate, (if the deaths in 
the 5th column be calculated from 1790, instead of backwards from 1828, which 
we suspect to he the case,) this could not be taken as the mortality inci- 
dent to so many residents of 10 years, but merely as a proximate average 
for 217 lives of five years’ residence. It would seem also that the accuracy 
of the results must be affected by the 4th column in a degree proportionate 
to the relation between the number stated therein, and the number of deaths and 
survivors in the service at every stage ; for, it we throw them out of the calcula 
tion by deducting them from the number of appointments, we may, by continuing 
the series, arrive at some period when the figures in columns tv o and fhe will oe 
equal, and column six will be blank, although there may bt. lh ing some -0 oi . 
retired civilians enjoying tlieir “ otium cumdignitate and a gieen old a n c, w uc 
with respect to half of them, might have endured if they had remained in India. 
The objection here taken will be more palpable, by supposing the Civil Fund m 
complete operation, and that every survivor of 22 years residence takes advantage 
thereof; (it is unnecessary to complicate the calculation by assuming a piopoition 
of furloughs.) At that period, our correspondent’s table gives 232 survivors, which 
added to 79, (the number stated to have quitted the service,) gives us 211, to be 
deducted from 419, the aggregate number of appointments. Hence we obtain the 
proportion of 208 appointments to blank survivors, instead of 340 to 232, as given 
in our correspondent’s second table. It appears to us therefore that liis results are 
far too favorable for the chances of life during the first few years of residence, and 
perhaps a little too unfavourable towards the close of his series. But we perceive 
still other difficulties in the way of a correct result, which will be obvious to our 
intelligent contributor, who may not have materials from which to trace the 
deaths in the service, each to its proper year, reckoned from the arrival of the 
individual, which seems to be the only way to ascertain the influence of the 
climate upon his constitution. 
HI . — Chemical Analyses. 
[Communicated at the Meeting of the Physical Class Asiatic Society, 
10th August 1831, by J. Prinsep, Esq. Secretary.] 
A mineralogical cabinet is of comparatively little use, unless the composition of 
the substances it contains is satisfactorily determined : it should therefore e e 
constant duty of those in charge to examine the new specimens contn ute occa- 
sionally from various quarters, before the interest excited by their nove ty is a a - 
ed. This observation does not apply to the generality of geological spec 
w hich the nature is well known ; but to local varieties, mineral waters, me a ic 
minerals, and substances whose chief claim to notice lies in tlie know eige o iur 
composition. With this view, I beg to put on record tlie following roug ana yses 
^ade since our last meeting. The water of the Katkamsandi lot firing, ie 
Gazipur kankar, and the arenaceous iron ore were received from tic cv. . 
Merest, and are alluded to in his paper l . The graphite was liande tome ) r. 
1 Published in a former number of the Gleanings. 
