448 EZEKIEL BROWN ELLIOTT. 



that in 1853 he was awarded a medal by the Massachusetts Chari- 

 table Mechanics' Association for " white flint telegraphic insulators." 

 Among his subsequent inventions were a portable dynamo ; an elec- 

 tric motor; a "storer" for electricity; and an "auroral telephone or 

 phono-flash." 



From 1855 onward, Mr. Elliott was increasingly engaged in actu- 

 arial work. In that and the following year he prepared for the New 

 England Mutual Life Insurance Company tables of Two-Life Sur- 

 vivorships, comprising about 18,000 logarithmic values, computed on 

 the basis of the London Actuary's life table, at four per cent interest. 

 He had, in 1851, been employed by Mr. Amasa Walker, Secretary of 

 State, in actuarial work upon the pension lists of Massachusetts ; and 

 in 18G0 he prepared, at the instance of Mr. Oliver Warner, Secretary 

 of State, a pamphlet, to be issued to city and town officials, contain- 

 ing Instructions concerning the Registration of Births, Marriages and 

 Deaths in Massachusetts (pp. 56, octavo). In all his actuarial work, 

 whether done for private employers or for the Commonwealth, he 

 won a high reputation for accuracy of computation, ingenuity in 

 method, and wide range of knowledge. 



In 1856 Mr. Elliott read before the Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science, at its Buffalo meeting, the following papers : — 



A. Tables of Prussian Mortality, interpolated for annual intervals 

 of a ore ; accompanied with formula and process for construction. 



B. Discussion of certain methods for converting ratios of deaths to 

 population, within given intervals of age, into the logarithm of the 

 probability that one living at the earlier of two ages will attain the 

 later ; with illustrations from English and Prussian data. 



C. Process for deducing accurate average duration of life, present 

 value of life annuities, and other useful tables involving life-contin- 

 gencie , from returns of population and deaths, without intervention 

 of general interpolation. 



At the meeting of the Association in Montreal, in 1857, Mr. Elliott 

 presented a paper on the Law of Mortality in Massachusetts, with 

 practical tables. 



At the outbreak of the War of Secession, Mr. Elliott was called 

 to join in the work of the United States Sanitary Commission, into 

 which he entered with intense zeal and unflagging industry. In 1862 

 he made a Preliminary Report on the Mortality and Sickness of the 

 Volunteer Forces of the United States Government during the Pres- 

 ent War. This report led to his being elected a Fellow of the 

 American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and to his appointment as 



