Considered as a place of residence, Shrewsbury has the advantage of a salubrious air and mild temperature. At a short distance from the town in a N.E. aspect, a very accurate observer found the mercury in the thermometer down at 8° in January 1814.—By observations on the variations of the thermometer for one year, the same gentleman found that the mean temperature of the same year was 46°, and that the variations, during the course of the year amounted to 77°, varying from 8° to 83°. In South Carolina, the annual variation has extended to 83°. The winter of this year, it may be recollected, was much colder and the summer hotter than is common at Shrewsbury, and yet the highest degree to which the mercury rose was 85°. In the East Indies, the mercury is frequently at 104°. From accurate observation it appeared, that the medium of the daily variations was nearly regular in its increase till June, and from the close of that month till the end of December was again almost uniformly diminishing. The medium of the daily variations was no more than 6°, whereas in some places they reach 30°. From these statements it appears that we are free from those sudden changes of the atmosphere which generally very much affect, and often prove fatal to, the human frame. That this is a fact may be inferred from the similar temperature of Shrewsbury with that of Sidmouth, in Devonshire, one of the most healthy places perhaps in this kingdom: In the year 1814, the mean temperature was 47°, only one degree above that of Shrewsbury. This observation is also supported by the tables published by Dr. Price, on Reversionary Payments, in which he proves, from the Bills of Mortality that out of 1000 persons born, there were alive _Age_ _London_. _Northampton_. _France_. _Vaud_, _Shrewsbury_. _Switzerland_. 18 334 459 621 618 555 54 125 218 406 367 326 85 7 13 36 17 41 The relative degrees of vitality are thus shewn in a more perspicuous manner than by any other method and from the above table it is evident that the temperature of Shrewsbury is in most instances nearly equal, and in some superior, to the warm climates of France and Switzerland, and extremely favourable to longevity.