Young, in his reply to the first, had endeavoured, and not without success, to soothe the somewhat troubled spirit of the invalid, by showing, from the terms in which his observations and theories had been noticed both by himself and his countrymen, that there never existed any just grounds for charging them with reluctance to do full justice to his claims. It would, in fact, be difficult to refer to any other example in the history of the sciences, where the combined efforts of men of science of different countries have brought about some great discovery, where national jealousies have been less offensively displayed, and where the verdict of their contemporaries has been so generally and so promptly confirmed by that of their successors.

In the year 1825, Fresnel was elected one of the fifty foreign members of the Royal Society; and two years afterwards, the medal which Count Rumford had founded, to be given biennially to the author of the most important discovery relating to light and heat, was unanimously voted to him by the Council. The proposition for this purpose was made by Sir John Herschel. "I was obliged to be silent," says Young, "from being too much interested in the subject; but in fact there was no opposition." In communicating this intelligence to Fresnel, in his capacity of Foreign Secretary of the Royal Society, and forwarding to him the medal and a sum of money which followed the award, he adds a hope that he will never again have occasion to complain of the neglect which his labours had experienced in this country.

"I also," says he, "should claim some right to participate in the compliment which is tacitly paid to myself in common with you by this adjudication; but considering that more than a quarter of a century is past since my principal experiments 2 D

LIFE.

were made, I can only feel it a sort of anticipation of posthumous fame, which I have never particularly coveted."

Six weeks afterwards, the same letter which gave him the intelligence of his own election as one of the eight foreign members of the Institute, announced also the death of the eminent man whom the Royal Society had so recently honoured :-

"You have doubtless heard," says Arago, "of the cruel loss which the sciences have recently experienced. Poor Fresnel was already half dead when I gave him your medals. His death has plunged in the deepest grief all those who are worthy of appreciating the union of fine talents with a fine character.” He died in the fortieth year of his age.

Almost exactly a quarter of a century before, the same medal, adjudicated on the same grounds, reached Malus on his deathbed. He was the precursor of the great series of discoveries which had reached their culminating point by the labours of Fresnel. Like Fresnel, also, he died in the flower of his age; like Fresnel, also, he was lamented by the lovers of science in all countries, who measured the magnitude of the loss they had sustained by the standard of what he had done.

CHAPTER XIII.

RESEARCHES ON THE VALUE OF LIFE AND LIFE
ASSURANCE.

THE years 1824 and 1825 were memorable for one of those great disturbances of the financial and mercantile world, which occur at intervals of ten or twelve years with a regularity, which seems to point them out as constitutional paroxysms of great commercial communities, and which are probably not without their advantages as periodical warnings to impress upon them those great lessons of prudence and good sense, which are as necessary for the welfare of nations as of individuals. It is recorded that out of 624 schemes which were projected during the first outburst of this fever of speculation, not more than one in five survived the cold stage of reaction which succeeded it, and of these not a few were seriously, if not irreparably, crippled, by the ruined or damaged fortunes of many of their founders.

Though the Palladium Insurance Company had its origin in the general excitement of this period, its projectors gave the best proof that could be afforded of their desire that its affairs should be conducted upon just principles, by selecting a man of Dr. Young's scientific eminence as their Inspector of calculations and medical referee. The most liberal terms were

The following is a copy of the resolution of the Directors appointing him, "30th March, 1824-Resolved, that Dr. Young, F.R.S., be requested

offered to him, and, in addition to his salary, the directors placed at his disposal a considerable number of reserved shares, which then bore a high price in the market; an arrangement which was equivalent to the gift of the whole of the premium upon them. With characteristic forbearance, however, he refused to reap where he had not sown, and declined to accept the offer. In the same spirit, he afterwards voluntarily proposed and accepted a reduced salary of 400l. per annum, as soon as he had ascertained that the duties of his office occupied a much smaller portion of his time than he had at first anticipated; a rare example of conscientiousness in the administration of such institutions, which are not unfrequently less designed by their founders for the benefit of the general body of shareholders and insurers, than of the officers who conduct them.

It was not the practice of Dr. Young to content himself with the performance of the merely routine duties of any office which he undertook, but to make important questions which arose out of them, the occasion of elaborate investigations. He had many years before proposed an empirical formula, adjusted to the results of observation, for expressing the value of life, and had founded upon it a method for calculating the value of any number of joint lives, which was more expeditious, if not more correct, than any which had been previously made use of: and he was naturally invited, by the subjects which were now brought so frequently under his notice, to a renewed consideration not merely of his former speculations, to undertake the situation of Inspector of Calculations, at a salary of 500l. per annum, to commence from the establishment of the Society; and that he be permitted to hold the appointment of Physician at the same time." Works, vol. ii. p. 359.

but also of many other questions of considerable interest connected with reversionary payments and annuities.

The proper value of the expectation of life, an element of political science affecting so many moral and material interests, is capable, even under the most favourable circumstances, of an approximate solution only. It is different for different classes of society, for different localities, for different nations. It has been materially increased by the protective effects of vaccination, by improvements in the practice of medicine and surgery, by the increased temperance and better social habits both of the rich and the poor; and there exists a moral certainty that it will continue to increase with every improvement in the application of science and art to the business of life, and most of all by the general adoption of those better sanitary arrangements for our towns and villages which are now in the course of introduction, and which it is the duty of a wise and provident government, not merely to encourage, but to enforce.

Three quarters of a century ago, Dr. Price, the real founder of correct views both of the theory and practice of Life Insurance, called attention to the fact that the duration of life was much less in large towns than in the open country. Out of every 1000 inhabitants, there died annually at that period, 52 in Stockholm, 48 in London, and 37 in Northampton. The town population of Manchester was 27,000, and the mortality 36 in 1000, indicating a degree of salubrity which in those days was somewhat unusual in large towns; but in the rural parts of the same parish, with a population of 13,000, one generation of the inhabitants, lived as long as two in the town, the annual mortality