Page:Willich, A. F. M. - The Domestic Encyclopædia (Vol. 1, 1802).djvu/92

68&#93; €8] A NN ANO nearly as 5§ to 1. By Mr. Simp- son's table, the chance is some- what less than that of 4 to 1. If it be desirable to ascertain the year, which a person of a given age has an equal chance of attain- ing, the inquirer ought to find half the numbtr of persons living at that given age, in the tables ; and the year required will appear in the column of ages. The premium of insurance upon lives may also, in some degree, be regulated by these tables, as fol- lows : The chance which a person of 15 years has to live another year, is, by Dr. Halley's table, as 80 to 1 ; but the chance that a per- son of 50 years has to live a year longer, is only 30 to 1 ; and con- sequently the premium for insur- ing the former ought to be the pre- mium for insuring the latter for one year, as 30 to 80, or as 3 to 8. Life-annuities ar$ commonly bought or sold at a certain number cf years' purchase. The value of an annuity of one pound for an age of 50 years, at 3 per cent, interest, is about 121. 10s. or twelve and a half years' purchase. Among those who have written on this subject, none is more de- servedly celebrated than Dr. Price, the author of Observations on Re- versionary Payments, Annuities, Src. published in 1771 ; and his curious remarks on this subject, inserted in the lxv lh vol. of the Philos. Transactions, for 1775, p. 424, are well worthy of perusal and attention. In our opinion, life annuities, when granted by individuals whose property is already involved, or who by such an expedient injure the just expectations of their rela- tives, ought not to be connived at in a well-regulated State. — Viewed in a commercial light, this species of gambling, in a certain degree, resembles the furious rage for the hazard or pharo-table; to which all those adventurers and avaricious money - lenders generally resort, who are anxious to amass large sums of money, which, by moderate legal interest, could not be realized. ANODYNE, is a term applied to medicines which have a ten- dency to assuage pain. This de- sirable purpose may be attained in three different ways : 1. By pare- gorics, or such remedies as are calculated to ease pain ; 2. By sopo- rifics, which relieve, the patient by causing artificial sleep ;. and 3. By narcotics, or such as stupify, by their action on the nervous system. This division, though sanctioned by general authority, is very im- perfect; and we shall attempt to explain the subject in a manner, perhaps, more consonant with just principles of animal economy — not from the result, but from the cause by which a proper application of anodynes induces certain cha- in the human body. In order to give a distinct view of the subject, we shall arrange them under three classes ; namely, I. Such remedies as tend either to remove the offending cause, or prevent the part affected from re- ceiving a sensible and painful im- pression, viz. in consequence of the amputation of a limb ; the drawing of a tooth ; the burning of parts either by the cautery, or by means of a red-hot iron ; the ap- plication of the tourniquet, a tight ligature, compresses, &c. To this class also belong opiates, and other stupifying medicines, administered for the suspension of pain ; but which may be justly termed, "poi- sons