THE LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY 385 



The best way to learn this game is to play it. There is such a wealth 

 of opportunity that after the work is once commenced, organization and 

 development will soon follow. 



Probably the most important and direct way to benefit the policy- 

 holder, and — by force of example — the public at large, is through a 

 system of free, annual, medical examinations, for the purpose of detect- 

 ing disease or disease-tendencies at the earliest possible moment. This 

 principle of periodic inspection or examination, which seems so radical 

 as applied to man, is accepted as commonplace when applied to the in- 

 stitutions or machines employed by him, such as banks, insurance com- 

 panies, steam-boilers, elevators, life-preservers, etc., none of which can 

 compare with the human organism in value, complexity or capacity for 

 going wrong. Why not examine the human machine every year? Is 

 there any important objection, except man's silly, subconscious feeling 

 that he is a thing apart from the rest of nature. The bacillus typhosus 

 has no such illusions regarding mams apartness, and, however difficult 

 it may be to apply the law of the conservation of energy to man's mental 

 processes, there is no doubt but that it applies to his body, and that the 

 violation of physical and physiological laws is followed by damage and 

 degeneration which are not always manifest until they are beyond the 

 power of science to repair. Many a life has been saved by the warn- 

 ing of incipient disease gained through a life-insurance examination. 

 Why should such benefits be casual instead of systematic ? 



So much for theory. In a modest way, the company with which I 

 have the honor to be associated has for several years been trying out 

 these theories in the laboratory of practical business experience. Our 

 Health Bureau was established in 1909, and has covered the following 

 activities : periodical bulletins have been issued, dealing with such sub- 

 jects as the causation of degenerative affections of the heart, blood ves- 

 sels and kidneys; affections of the nose, throat and lungs, with preven- 

 tive measures ; hygiene of the eye ; dental and oral hygiene ; obesity and 

 its prevention ; drug addiction ; physiological effects of alcohol and to- 

 bacco ; causation and prevention of typhoid, yellow fever, malaria, pneu- 

 monia, etc. ; increase in the death-rate from cancer, and how to meet it 

 by general and surgical methods ; courage as a health-asset ; diet-hints ; 

 summer and winter hygiene, etc. Statistical pamphlets, addresses, etc., 

 have been issued, showing the increase and decrease in mortality from 

 various diseases, and practical lessons have been drawn therefrom. Many 

 thousands of such monographs have been distributed to boards of health, 

 schools, colleges and other centers of social influence. The privilege of 

 free annual medical examination has been extended to policyholders 

 since 1909. Although less than 10 per cent, of the policyholders have 

 annually availed themselves of this privilege, the results more than 

 justify the company's action. Forty per cent, of the risks examined 

 were found impaired, as some misinterpreted the system as an emerg- 



