14 DECEMBER 1872, Page 3

A curious illustration of the power of scientific prediction even

in subjects by no means of a mathematical kind has just been afforded us. In the memoirs of the Museum of Practical Geology : —" Mineral Statistics of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland for the year 1871 "—just published by Robert Hunt, Keeper of Mining Records, the consumption of coal in 1871 is stated at 117,352,028 tons. In Professor Stanley Jevons' book on the " The Coal Question," published more than seven years ago, he estimates the probable consumption of coal in Great Britain for 1871 at 117,900,000 tons.