Benefit or Friendly Societies. 293 



We have been thus liberal in our extracts, from a desire to 

 give all the information which has been hitherto obtained re- 

 garding the average rate or law of sickness, — a subject entire- 

 ly new to the great body of the members of Friendly Societies, 

 but which must of necessity form an essential element in fra- 

 ming the tables of every society on proper principles. 



From the evidence above quoted, it will be seen that consider- 

 able dubiety at first existed even among some of the professional 

 witnesses, as to the practicability of reducing the occurrence of 

 sickness to any given law ; but it will likewise be seen, that every 

 doubt was removed, as soon as due attention was paid to the 

 subject. On a question so lately brought forward, and so difficult 

 of solution, as the true rate of sickness, it is not surprising that 

 there should have been some discrepancy of opinion. On this 

 point, however, the Committee, after referring to Dr Price's 

 Table, report to the House of Commons as follows : 



" Mr Morgan, the nephew of Dr Price, and actuary to the Equitable As- 

 surance Office for Lives and Survivorships, continues to use this table ; and Mr 

 Frend, actuary to the Rock Assurance Company, and also an eminent mathe- 

 matician, entirely concurs with Mr Morgan. These two gentlemen have been 

 employed in certifying, under the act, the tables of a great number of societies \ 

 among others those of a very considerable society, which has attracted much 

 of the public attention, the Friendly Institution founded at Southwell in 

 Nottinghamshire, by the Reverend John Thomas Becher, under the presi- 

 dency of Vice-Admiral Sotheron, one of your Committee. 



" The tables of this society have been adopted by a society upon a large 

 scale lately formed in Hampshire, by Mr Fleming, another of your Commit- 

 tee, and by others which are in progress. The payments required by these 

 tables, for provision against sickness, are somewhat greater than those requir- 

 ed by Dr Price ; the excess may be considered as necessary, for greater, secu- 

 rity, and for the expence of management." 



" The House will find in the evidence, and in the paper of Mr Finlaison, 

 frequent reference to the Scots Tables. The tables here intended, are those 

 which are appended to a Report on Friendly or Benefit Societies, exhibiting 

 the law of sickness, as deduced from returns by Friendly Societies in diffe- 

 rent parts of Scotland, drawn up by a Committee of the Highland Society of 

 Scotland." " Returns were received from about 80 Societies, and various 

 tables were constructed upon the result. One of these was framed upon a 

 principle entirely new, (see above p. 283.), and purported to give in weeks 

 and decimals of a week, the average duration of sickness likely to occur to an 

 individual of each age, during a year. This average is found to be, in all the 

 earlier periods of life, considerably less than the average assumed by Dr Price, 

 or in the Southwell tables. Whether this difference is owing to a defect in 

 the form in which the statement of facts was required, to the defective mode 

 in which the requisition was answered, to the superior healthiness of the dis- 

 tricts to which the returns applied, or to what other cause, your Committee 

 have not formed a decided judgment. Much detail upon all these points will 

 be found in the evidence ; but the Committee have not found it necessary to 

 pursue a more extended inquiry into this question, because they trust that 

 they have procured, and still more that they will have pointed out the 

 means of procuring, a body of information, more complete, more accurate, and 



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