Characterisation, especially by Letters 537 



particular diseases. What is A.B.'s expectation of life? The inheritance of 

 various types of disease is a subject on which there is very little medical 

 literature and that not of a kind from which a numerical estimate of duration 

 of life can be based. The present system by which Life Insurance Companies 

 vaguely select the better lives by aid of their medical officers is wholly out of 

 date, and even if it can be made profitable to the companies is not just to the 

 insured. Every life has its individual expectation, and its corresponding pre- 

 mium, and from the standpoint of the insured it is unfair to reject a life because 

 the insurer is too ignorant, or too inert, to obtain the knowledge requisite to 

 insure it at a reasonably approximate rate. The fact is that insurance com- 

 panies as now run are in the bulk commercial enterprises, having little regard 

 for the needs of the population as a whole, unless those needs are such as with 

 little scientific inquiry can be turned to easy profit. The time is ripe for the 

 State to take over not only the insurance of the handworker, but of the whole 

 community. It possesses in its records of births and deaths material from 

 which, with labour and scientific oversight, an approximate picture could be 

 made of how the entire population in its classes and families lives and dies. 

 Such must be the basis of any insurance scheme fair to the individual, what- 

 ever be his health or his family history. And if there must be a profit made 

 out of life insurance, as there certainly is at present, it is surely best that it be 

 made by the State, rather than by commercial companies. The State would 

 at least enforce the medical examination of annuitants as well as of the would- 

 be insured. 



Gal ton often referred to the importance of measuring the expectation of 

 life with due regard to the susceptibility of the family to various types of 

 disease which have high mortality rates at special ages. He considered it not 

 only of value for scientific life insurance, but also fundamental for a right 

 development of Eugenics. He consulted on the matter the well-known actuary 

 Mr W. Palin Elderton, who at a meeting of the Sociological Society had 

 stated that possibly the insurance offices had material for the measurement 

 of the heredity of disease. Mr Elderton, after a very careful consideration of 

 various proposals, suggested an appeal to the Institute of Actuaries. 



42, Rutland Gate, S.W. January 22, 1905. 



Dkab Mr Elderton, If I could see ray way a little further I should be glad to take steps 

 to give effect to your suggestion about obtaining Eugenic data from Insurance Offices. 



Can you help me with a little information] 1. Are the records kept for any considerable 

 time after the death of the person insured'! 2. What size number of them could be in 

 likelihood obtained ? 3. Could permission be easily got to have them copied 1 4. If so, to whom 

 should T apply? 5. What should you imagine would be the cost per 100 of obtaining copies? 

 6. Could I get 2 or 3 samples (without names) 1 Very faithfully yours, Francis Galton. 



January 25, 1905. 



Dear Mr Oalton, I think I had better deal with each of your questions separately : 

 1. The records are kept for various periods depending on the practice of the particular office ; 

 in some cases for more than thirty years after death. 2. If you could get many offices to join, 

 you would be able to take out thousands of cases, some records, however, giving little information. 



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