220 INSURANCE 



Meteorology I assume to include both climate and weather service. 

 The field is immense, for, as has been observed by Montesquieu, 

 " The empire of climate is the most powerful of all empires/' and 

 the progress made by meteorology has been a material gain to life 

 insurance science. The normal climate of any given locality is a 

 factor of great importance in determining health and longevity. The 

 elements of temperature, barometric pressures, humidity, rainfall, 

 prevailing winds, etc., are of considerable determining value, but 

 as yet we have not the required standards by which accurately to 

 measure the effects of these elements on human health under the 

 varying conditions met with in different portions of the globe. We 

 still speak of the " deadly climate " of the west coast of Africa or of 

 French Guiana, with not much better knowledge of the facts than 

 when these expressions came into use, under entirely different condi- 

 tions of attempted settlement or colonization. While the climate 

 and weather of India are the same to-day as at the time of the great 

 East India Company, the mortality of European troops has been 

 reduced from seventy-six to sixteen per thousand. While it may be 

 true, as Ripley holds, that " the English of to-day are no nearer 

 to true acclimatization in India than they were in 1840," there can 

 be no doubt but that a more perfect knowledge of the elements of 

 tropical climates and the resulting tropical hygiene have done much 

 toward the ultimate solution of the w r hite man's conquest of the 

 tropics. 



The applied sciences I can only discuss in the most general way. 

 All improvements in processes and methods of manufacture, as a 

 rule, benefit the workmen by incidental improvements in the sanitary 

 condition of factories and workshops. The increasing proportion 

 of risks written by life insurance companies on the lives of persons 

 employed in manufacturing industries points to the importance of 

 all improvements in industrial hygiene and their resulting relation 

 to the diseases of occupations. The improvements in the processes 

 of manufacture imply, as a general rule, a decreasing amount of 

 waste in the form of dust, vapor, or gases, many of which are of a 

 health-injurious character. The utilization of waste products, on 

 the other hand, has led to new industries, many of which are injurious 

 to health and life. The consolidation of industries in the form of 

 industrial combinations or trusts, primarily for the purpose of effect- 

 ing economies, has done much to improve sanitary conditions by 

 providing larger factories with more light and better ventilation, so 

 that it is safe to say that since the introduction of the factory system 

 the average workman has never been employed under healthier 

 conditions than at the present time. To insurance companies the 

 problems involved in industrial technology are, however, extremely 

 complex and a never-ending source of anxiety. For illustration, 



