ON LIFE CONTINGENCIES. 171 



officers in question in England during the latter years 

 of their lives. 



The Equitable society has the character of having 

 been much more careful in the selection of its lives than 

 was the Amicable society during the earlier part of its 

 existence. This, together with the gradual improve- 

 ment of human life, serves to explain the very great 

 difference between the results of their experience. The 

 latter years of the Amicable society do not exihibit any 

 very decided difference of the sort. 



The state in which we stand with respect to tables 

 of human life is singular, considering the enormous 

 amounts which daily pass from hand to hand in the 

 purchase of life interests. I may have occasion to 

 speak more at length on this subject in the sequel : 

 in the mean time let the reader observe the difference 

 between the various tables, and remember that each has 

 its votaries. If the late Mr. Morgan (whose name 

 stands very high as an authority on such matters) had 

 been requested to state the value of an annuity on the life 

 of a female aged 40, and the same for a male of the 

 same age, he would have replied that there was no 

 material difference between male and female life, and 

 that both belong to a class whose average existence is 

 23 years ; and he would accordingly have used the 

 Northampton tables of annuities. At the national debt 

 office, it would have been answered by Mr. Finlaison 

 that the male and female life are two very distinct 

 cases, and that the two different classes to which they 

 belong have severally the average lives of 27 and 

 31 years. That such differences should exist, is a 

 proof of insufficiency of information upon the sub- 

 ject : a want which nothing but the government can 

 supply, but which no government ever will attempt to 

 supply until increasing knowledge among the commu- 

 nity at large creates an influential body of remonstrants. 



Having given a table of mean durations, it is easy to 

 find the proportion who die in one of the intermediate 

 periods, on the supposition that the deaths are equally 



