TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 155 
the immense pecuniary interests at stake by life offices, no inquiry or investigation 
of this kind has ever been undertaken by them, and the preceding and other collate- 
ral collections of facts, it is believed, are the only sources of information so analysed 
which anywhere exists. From the specimens now furnished from the records of 
friendly societies, the very remarkable aids which they must afford in estimating the 
value of peculiar classes of lives, by confining fluctuations within known limits, must 
be evident, The trouble and expense of collecting such data is very great, but still 
the information itself is of tenfold value to the life institutions of the country. 
Attention is next directed to the following table, which is somewhat analogous in 
its character to Table IV., only that the element of age, with a view to its more sim- 
‘ple application to practical purposes, is excluded. From the register of deaths for the 
years 1840-49, an abstract has been made of those which have taken place in the first, 
_second, third, and every subsequent year, from the date of the policies, and the results 
constitute the following table :— 
TasueE V. 
.] 18.1 19. | 20. | 21. | Total. 
Deaths among the assured after the lapse of the following number of years from the date of assurance. . 
143 
164 
198 
203 
] 200 
908 
16] 16} 12/24})..].. 238 
1816] 9} 8] 24].. 229 
20. [26} 190 6] 7} 25 293 
11) 16} 23] 274174 71204.. B39 
22} 15] 34] 17} 29} 8] 14/38] 837 
126 [120 [1056] 82 | γ0 | 40 | 43 2344 
6] 9] 8} 10] 10 11} οΪ 7] 5 
On referring to Table IV., it will be found that the average period which had 
elapsed from the date of the policies to the day of death was nine years and three 
months; and in the preceding table it will be also seen, that the greatest number of 
deaths has taken place in the ninth year after the date of the policies, the oldest policy 
being then about twenty-one years, During the five years, 1840-44, it is curious to 
observe, that the greatest number of deaths was also among policies of nine years’ 
standing, although the oldest policy was then of sixteen years’ duration only; and it 
is still further to be observed, that during the five years, 1840-44, about one-half of 
all the deaths took place in the first eight years of the policies; but for the ten years, 
1840-49, one-half of all the deaths happened in the first nine years, the oldest policies 
being, in the latter case, of five years’ greater duration. At the same time it will be 
seen that the number of deaths per annum has gone on increasing, from 143 in 1840, 
to 337 in 1849; in the former year the number of persons assured being 10,234, and 
in the latter 14,036 ; so that, although the number of persons assured increased about 
48 per cent., the deaths increased to the extent of 136 per cent, The numerals on 
the top of the table show the duration of the policies, and those in the bottom line of 
the table show the order in which the deaths have taken place, from the minimum, 
in the twenty-first year, to the maximum in the ninth year. It is obvious that the 
solution of the results here presented will be derived from the law of mortality ex- 
hibited in Table J., the number of persons assured in each year, and the ages of those 
persons, and that any fluctuation whateyer taking place in any one of these elements 
must disturb the above results. 
In the following table will be found an abstract of the number of deaths which 
have taken place at the various periods of life from different diseases, and at the same 
time setting forth the average period which has elapsed, in years and months, from 
the date of effecting the policies to the date of death :-— 
