The Sun.
London, England, 1864-02-10 00:00:00

MARKET HARBOROUGH-TUESDAY.

White wheat, 42s to 46s ; red, 37s to 43s per 36 stone.
Malting barley at 34s to 37s per qr. ; grinding, 28s to 33s
per 30 at, Oats, old, 27s to 30s; new, 20s to 23s per 30
; beans,
.358 to 40s per qr.

DUBLIN—TUESDAY.
8. d. s. d.
Wheat, white 24 0 to 26 6
Do., red 2l 6 to 24 0
Do., new
Barley
Oats
Do., black.... 0 to 0

s. d. s. d.
Oatmeal lO 0 to 13 0
Beans.. . 0 to 0
Bere . — 0 to 0
Rapeseed .... 0 to 0
Bakers' flour.. 14 0 to 20 0
Indian corn .. 27 0 to 23 0

More Preposterous Calculations.

The Rev. Professor Haughton of the Geological
Society of Dublin is stated to have arrived at the
period of 1,280,000,000 years as the time which
elapsed while the earth cooled from 122 deg. F. to
77 deg. F., these temperatures being taken as de-
fining the periods of the first appearance of life on
the earth and of the London clay respectively. This
calculation is stated to be based upon a previous one
by Professor Helmholtz, that the time which a globe
of basalt of the size of the earth would take to cool
from 2,000 degrees C. to 200 degrees C. would be
350,000,000 years. Very different is the calculation
made by Professor W. Thomson in his most inge-
nious paper " On the Secular Cooling of the Earth"
(Trans. Royal Society Edin., vol. xxiii. part 1). The
question he undertakes to solve is this:—ln what
period would a body consisting of materials such
as the earth consists of pass from a condition of first
solidification to one in which the law of increase of
temperature in descending from its surface down-
wards is in accordance with that observed in the
earth. Taking the temperature of melting rock to
be from 10,000 deg. F. to 7,000 deg. F. (which is
higher than the temperature assigned to melting
basalt), and assuming the rate of increase of tem-
perature near the surface to be 1-50th deg. F. per
foot, allowing for great variation in the result no
account of our ignorance "as to the effects of high
temperature in altering the conductiveness and
specific heats of rocks, and as to their latent heat
of fusion," the Professor comes to the conclusion
that "we may say, with much probability, that
the consolidation cannot have taken place less
than 20,000,000 years age, or we should have more
underground heat than we actually have ; nor more
than 400,000,000 years ago, or we should not have
so much as the least-observed underground increase
of temperature. That is to say, that Leibnitz's epoch
of emergence' of the ‘consistentior status' was pro-
bably between those dates ;" and, using the tempe-
rature of 7000 deg. F. as that of melting rock, he
inclines to 98,000,000 of years as a probable esti-
mate. Compare these modest numbers, to express
the ages since the earth was an incandescent,
though solid, sphere, with Professor Haughton's
1,280,000,000 years as giving the period between
the first existence of life and the London clay !

Fatal Result of a Fight at Birmingham.

An occurrence of a peculiarly tragic character formed the
subject of a coroner's inquest at Birmingham on Saturday
evening last. A few days ago, a young man of the namet
of Thomas Stevenson, an only son of highly respectable
parents residing at Market Harborough, Leicestershire. was
carried in a helpless state to his lodgings in Birmingham.
He was there attended by a girl of the name of Sarah Mor-
ton, with whom he was keeping proper company with a
view to making her his wife, and she anxiously inquired
the cause of his bruised and disabled state. He said that
he had fallen, and denied that he had been fighting or tha
any one had been ill-using him. A surgeon was called in
and the suffering man was found to be in such a dangerous
state that his removal to the general hospital was con-
sidered necessary. His mother was then sent for, and to
her broken-hearted inquiries he merle the same answer
as to his sweetheart. Neither she nor the medical staff
at the hospital believed he was telling the whole of
the truth, as his condition indicated considerable per-
sonal violence ; but he repeated his statement with such
apparently truthful emphasis that the matter was allowed
to pass without any further question. He gradually became
worse, and expired at the end of three days in the presence
of his sweetheart, who was in constant attendance. A post
mortem examination was then made by Mr. Bracey, house
surgeon, and revealed a considerable laceration of the blad-
der, penetrating all the coats of the organ ; and his opinion
was that death had resulted from this injury causing peri-
tonitis, and that the injury itself was caused by a heavy
blew or fall. The case was then investigated, and evidence
was procured that the deceased had received his injuries
during a fight with a man of the name of Shakespeare, with
whom he quarrelled in a publichouse at Oldbury, near Bir-
mingham, in reference to a sixpenny bet. The fight took
place out of door ; and during its progress both combatants
fell over the embankment of a brook and were immersed in
the water. The deceased fell violently on some bricks at
the bottom of the stream. The men renewed the fight after
coming out of the water, and were afterwards separated.
The deceased was taken charge of by a neighbour, and
stripped of his wet clothes and put to bed, but next morning
he was in such a suffering state that he was taken in a cab
to his lodgings in Birmingham.
The jury found that the deceased had died of a casualty
occurring during a fight, and exempted the other man from
all imputation. The deceased was by a trade a striker, and
was employed in extensive carriage works at Oldbury.

THE WONDERFUL COIFFURE of Madame Rimsky
Karkowska at the great Court ball of St. Peters-
burg, as described by the Paris Correspondent of the Court
Tournal:—A drawing, which has been sent to Paris, and
which we have seen, represents it as a huge bird, composed
entirely of the masses of fair hair which adorn the head of
the Russian beauty. The bows in font, puffed out and
turned behind the ears, form the wings, while the thick
bhower of golden curls down the neck and shoulders forms
the tail. The head, which descends low on the forehead,
was composed of coloured jewels, the beak alone coming be-
tween the eyes of brilliants. The whole chevelure repre-
senting the body of the bird was' sprinkled with precious
stones, and the effect of this strange and startling invention
was great enough to render the most refined company in the
world totally forgetful of etiquette, for on the entrance of
Madame Rimsky Karkowska the whole assembly were on
the alert in order to examine mere closely the complicated
work of the coiffeur. _

MR. MACFARMEN'S NEW OPERA, founded on
Goldsmith's " Sho Stoops to Conquer," is advertised to
come out on Thursday next. _ _

Win. EDWARD DICEY loft London last week for
Schleswig ; and his correspondence from the seat of war
there will, doubtless, be expected with peculiar interest in
the columns of a London morning paper by those who
b now his graphic power and his fair and candid spirit as a
writer, as shown in Lis little book on modern Rome, his
letters from America in Macmillan and the Spectator, and
his other publications,