119 
of Edinburgh, Session 1869-70. 
for making comparisons of the actual years lived, with the computed 
number according to any table. Examples are given in the case of 
entrants at age 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, and 50. 
Interpolation. 
A description is given of the methods of deducing, and of practi¬ 
cally applying, two processes of interpolation. One of them is based 
upon the principle that the quantum of mortality in each decennial 
period of life, in the adjusted and unadjusted results, shall agree. 
The second principle is based upon a formula, which expresses the 
number living in the law of mortality, at any age, in terms of con¬ 
stants, and the complement of life at that age. The formulae for 
several differences are given in both cases, and the results applied 
to the total assured lives in the general mortality experience of 
the English and Scottish Assurance Offices. 
2. Notes on Indian Society and Life in the Age when the 
Hymns of the Eigveda were composed. By John Muir, 
D.C.L., LLJD., Phi). 
{Abstract .) 
The paper began by stating, that although the hymns of the 
Eigveda exhibit a simpler and less developed stage of religious be¬ 
lief and conception than we find in the works of the earliest Greek 
poets, and a system of ideas wildly diverse, both from the my¬ 
thological forms and the theosophic opinions, of the later Indian 
pantheon, and of subsequent speculation ; and although many of the 
customs and practices of that early age are different from those of 
later times, we are not to suppose that in the former period the 
condition of society was of a very primitive description. On the 
contrary, there are many signs of a considerable progress in civilisa¬ 
tion and culture then existing. The opinion of the late Pro¬ 
fessor H. H. Wilson on this head was then quoted ; and as one proof 
in support of the position, the variety and occasional elaborateness of 
the metres in which the hymns are composed was referred to. 
1. Some account was then given of the country occupied by the 
Indians of the Yedic era—of which a considerable portion is con- 
