346 
Scientific Intelligence. 
[Nov. 
time, as the energy of the causes on which they depended have become less 5 and 
the greater part of which still continue, and are in a state of progression, but with 
less force, and on a more limited scale than heretofore. In a word, that the general 
laws of harmony have not been disturbed oil our globe, more than in any other part 
of the universe ; and that the explanation of geological phenomena, instead of be- 
ing discoverable in a desolating theory of imaginary convulsions, is to be found in 
the natural consequences of the primitive state of the globe, and the necessary ef- 
fects of the general laws to which matter is subject. 
True it is, convulsions, violent ruptures of beds, their reformation, the change of 
place of substances, the consequences of a certain anterior order of things, cannot 
be mistaken. But these effects are far from being the consequences of disturbances 
of tlie established order, — of deluges in fact. Tile Baron asserts that the whole his- 
tory of the globe is contained in a few lines formerly published by him, in which he 
maintained it was time for geologists to abandon the system of convulsions of na- 
ture and of cataclysms ; to acknowledge the influence of natural causes, and of the 
order and permanence by which the universal planetary system is governed. 
The primitive volcanic fire and its consequences ; the formation of waters by the 
condensation of gases ; the sinking of their level in consequence of the infiltration 
effected in proportion to the refrigeration and to the thickening of the crust of the 
earth, and the diminution of the temperature ou the surface of the globe, the effect 
of the same refrigeration, are the primary causes from which the explanation of the 
geological phenomena proceed, by a natural and easy concatenation. — Lon. Mag. 
5. Improvement of the Value uf Life. 
It has been pretty generally suspected of late years, that either there is a manifest 
increase of the value of life, which is not impossible, from the improved habits and 
more extended enjoyments of a people constantly advancing in civilisation, or that, as 
is also possible, the Northampton table, which have been hitherto the basis on which 
calculations connected with the value of lives have been founded, was constructed 
on insufficient data. The following table given by Mr. Morgan, actuary of the Equit- 
able Insurance, which places this subject in the clearest point of view, is taken from 
the Westminster Review, No. XVIII. p. 411. 
Age. 
No. of Policies. 
Died. 
By the Table should have died. 
20 to 30 
4720 
29 
68 
30 40 
15951 
106 
243 
40 50 
27072 
20 1 
506 
50 60 
23307 
339 
515 
60 70 
14705 
426 
502 
70 80 
5056 
289 
290 
80 95 
701 
99 
95 
We see by this table, that the value of life from the age of 20 to that of 50, is more 
than double what is given by the tables. 
6. Proportion of Sickjiess. 
/ 
The following table taken from the same work, p. 415, may interest those fond of 
statistic enquiries. It was drawn up by the Highland Society of Scotland, from 79 
returns of benefit societies scattered through 16 counties, and it consequently ap- 
plies to the class of labourers and mechanics who formed the members of those 
Societies. The total number was 104218, and the period in some instances extend- 
ed from 1750 to 1821. 
fears of age. 
Sickness. 
Years of age. Sickness. 
21 
4 days. 
66 5, 4 weeks', 
46 
1 week, 
67 6, 6 weeks, 
57 
2 weeks. 
68 8 weeks. 
63 
3 weeks, 
69 9 weeks. 
65 
4, 4 weeks. 
70 10 weeks. 
7. Constant of Aberration. 
Mr. Richardson of the Greenwich Observatory, having reduced 4119 observa- 
tions made there in the years 1825-6-7-8, with the two mural circles of Troughton 
and Jones, on 14 of the most favourably situated stars, finds this constant by Trough- 
ton’s circle to he 20 ",505, by Jones’ 20", 502. This value is something greater than 
