1830.] 
Velocity of Sound. 
307 
proportioned to the increased command of wealth ; I should expert to witness, 
in such a society as there exists, the spread of luxurious habits amongst all 
classes ; not that more people should spring up, living in exactly the same man- 
ner as their predecessors ; hut that a slightly increased population should ultimate- 
ly he found in existence, to each individual, of Which more products had become 
essential for what had come to be considered his respectable maintenance : — that 
if 10 quarters of corn were formerly necessary for the support of the labourer 
himself, and the manufacturer who supplied his wrought necessaries ; and if after 
a doubling of the productive power of manufacturers were necessary for yielding 
him the same sum of enjoyment ; the habits and feelings of the labourer would, 
with the increased facility of obtaining wrought products, undergo a change; and 
he might perhaps he ultimately found contented to live, and to increase his num- 
bers only when 8 quarters were placed at his disposal, and secured to each of his 
offspring. 
Here, although the command of enjoyments would be increased, the means of 
extending population would be also enjoyed within the country ; and although, 
the aggregate absolute value now obtained within the country would be increased 
also, it is clear that it would not have experienced such an increase as would have 
followed such an extension of population— as might have taken place, if no change 
had occurred in the habits of the people. 
The reasoner who has seen, in the clearest point of view, the fallacy ot saying, 
that wealth and exchangeable value are identical, is Colonel Torrens ; and he gives 
very apt illustrations of the absurdity of the proposition, as propounded by bis 
predecessors. (Torrens on Wealth, page 10 — 11.) But to what do his reasonings 
lead ? That wealth may exist, which is destitute of value ! If he says exchangeable 
value alone exist, and if all the wealth, supplying human wants, weie directly 
obtained by those who ultimately consume it, then there might be abundance of 
wealth, and all without value. . . . ........ 
But agreeably to my conceptions, it is an essential characteristic of wealth, mat it 
shall, under all circa instances, he possessed of value. Of what value, then, must 
it be possessed ? Either of positive value, or of none. He, treating the only value 
we know, as being the exchangeable value of Political Economists, deprecates, 
therefore, the employment of the term value at all; and be defines wealth to 
consist of articles which possess utility, and which are procured by some portion 
of voluntary effort. But as value is an affection of the human mind, created >y 
the existence of useful products, which cannot be obtained for nothing; and as 
products calculated to cause that affection, may be procurable, directly by labour, 
as well as indirectly by the means of barter—. 
esspntmi to us exisieuei*, is the same thing as labout being 
ence for Vl ere a sacri ice, such as labouring, is made, there esteem for, and 
Xinte product, most exist, -If the products obtained ^™lunUry effort w ;; 
nm worth that effort in the opinion of the man obtaining them, tlie titort o 
not be"' ‘Where therefoJe the voluntary effort 
may be assured of the existence ol value, for 'a ascertained ; 
ducts are held, after the sacrifice necessary for obtaining them is ascertaine , 
me sauiuic " ... ^ »i, 0 
j 0n the Velocity of Sound, and Variation of Temperature a, A 
PrlsJeZtZ Atmosphere. By John Herapath Esgr. 
§ 1 . — Velocity of Sound* 
Having communicated the discovery “f ■“ ascending 
sound”, and the decrease of “Sb' I have bee „ P prevailed on to give 
the atmosphere, to several s«enti » are inten( i ed to form a part. 
em to the public before the work of J pursuing Newton’s hints 
ft is pretty well known iu the ^.enUfic worid tlmt m p„ ^ COMtil „. 
the cause of gravitation, I have been led to a theory oi 
