384 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



of deposit and collection, etc., and they pay out more than $400,000,000 

 annually in death-claims, endowments, etc., to policyholders, all of 

 which is evidence of the vast and intricate ramifications of the business 

 throughout the social structure. Every policyholder is in touch with at 

 least two other individuals, thereby affording the life-insurance com- 

 panies seventy-five million points of contact with the public, and con- 

 stantly open channels of communication through which educational 

 material may be transmitted. 



We may summarize the reasons why life-insurance companies should 

 engage in health conservation work as follows : 



1. The machinery is at hand. 



2. It can be utilized without loss, and with probable gain to both 

 company and policyholder. 



3. The very nature and extent of the life-insurance business im- 

 poses a public obligation to exercise this power for the welfare of the 

 people. 



The medical and scientific staff of a life-insurance company is 

 trained in the consideration of disease-tendencies, rather than active 

 diseased conditions. The influence of living-habits and the significance 

 of physical disabilities and abnormalities, and especially of personal and 

 family history, upon large masses of insured lives, form the body of the 

 rapidly developing science of medical selection. By combining this in- 

 trinsic knowledge with the readily available extrinsic data relating to 

 personal hygiene, the medical officers of a life-insurance company are, 

 or should be, especially well equipped to guide their policyholders 

 toward safe and sane living-habits. Furthermore, experience shows that 

 the policyholder will listen to the advice of his life-insurance office on 

 such matters, because he discerns the practical business motive that 

 prompts it, however liberal an admixture there may be of normal, 

 genuine interest in human betterment. 



The lines along which such work may be carried on are too numer- 

 ous to permit of minute description in this article. Briefly, they may 

 be summarized as follows: health-hints and instructions distributed 

 with premium-notices; periodical bulletins covering the fundamental 

 principles of healthful living; cooperation with boards of health and 

 other welfare-agencies, by furnishing statistical and other information 

 accumulated by the company's bureau of research ; the creation of pub- 

 lic sentiment where needed, for the enforcement of health-laws and 

 proper equipment and support of health-departments; persistent effort 

 in favor of legislation for the proper registration of vital statistics; 

 persistent publicity to the need for national, state and local warfare 

 against preventable disease, not only of the communicable class, but of 

 those conditions arising from wear and tear, maladjustment and faulty 

 living-habits. These are a few of the many activities that could readily 

 be carried on by well-equipped life-insurance companies. 



