382 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



men, notwithstanding much recent evidence to the contrary. The con- 

 stant use of actuarial tables, both in business practise and in the statutes 

 governing the maintenance of reserves by life-insurance companies, 

 tends to give a certain fixity -and authority to such tables which they 

 derive from no natural law. 



The recent medico-actuarial investigation of the experience of 43 

 American companies, for example, shows a marked improvement since 

 the quinquennium 1885-1890, among the younger-age groups, and a 

 distinct deterioration among those over age 60. 



Any assumption that either the death-rate or the span of life is a 

 fixed quantity necessarily involves the postulate that either the condi- 

 tions affecting the mortality are unchanging, or that each change is 

 neutralized and balanced by some other change, thus keeping the rate 

 in equilibrium. 



As a matter of fact, the general death-rate throughout the civilized 

 world has been falling for several centuries, although there is no evi- 

 dence that the span of life has increased within recent years, the low- 

 ered death-rate resulting largely from the saving of lives in the younger 

 age-groups. 



That these movements of mortality are not beyond the control of 

 man is shown by this lowering of the death-rate in the age-groups most 

 affected by the communicable diseases which have recently yielded to the 

 attacks of science. That science can likewise influence the mortality 

 from diseases resulting from faulty living-habits or the mere wear and 

 tear of existence, can not be questioned, and the alleged mysterious 

 fixity of the death-rate or of the span of life should not be held up as a 

 bugaboo to restrain such efforts. 



That the mortality in the average life-insurance company is far 

 higher than it need be, and could be lowered, even among good, aver- 

 age insured lives, by improved living-habits, is shown by the experience 

 of the United Kingdom Temperance and General Provident Institution. 



This remarkable exhibit shows that in the institution mentioned, 

 two large bodies of lives, almost equal in numbers, and homogeneous 

 except for the use of alcohol, moved alongside of each other for forty- 

 four years, and that one group, the abstainers, at all times exhibited a 

 markedly superior vitality to the other group — the non-abstainers — 

 the total difference in favor of the abstainers during the period covered 

 being 27.4 per cent., although the mortality among the general, or non- 

 abstaining class was only 91 per cent, of that expected according to the 

 British O m Table, representing the experience in 63 British offices. 

 This is not an isolated experience, as recent British and American ex- 

 periences show an even greater difference in favor of the abstainer. 



Now it is fair to assume that if, by educational methods, a company 

 could influence 10 per cent, of its policyholders to lead a careful hy- 



