ON ANNUITIES. 187 



and C are alive, to cease when one dies, and to re- 

 commence when a second dies, ceasing finally with the 

 death of the third, is not one annuity, but two annuities. 

 And by whatever name periodical payments may be 

 called, whether rent, salary, rent-charge, interest, &c. 

 &c., they are considered in this subject as annuities. 



An annuity may be in possession or in reversion. 

 In the first case, a payment will become due at the end 

 of a term after the creation of the annuity, unless, in 

 the mean time, one of the conditions on which payment 

 depends cease to exist. In the second, the annuity is 

 not to begin to be paid until some circumstances happen, 

 or cease to happen, which are named in the agreement. 

 Sometimes the term reversionary annuity implies that 

 there is a contingency in the time of its beginning ; 

 and an annuity not to commence till after a fixed time 

 has elapsed, would be called a deferred annuity. There 

 is, however, a little variation in the use of these words : 

 reversion sometimes implies a remainder of something 

 existing, while a deferred interest is one which does not 

 commence till a future time. Thus if B be to take an 

 annuity on his own life as soon as A is dead, A en-* 

 joying it during his own life, B's reversion is a certain 

 part of an annuity on his own life, reckoned from the 

 present time. But if no annuity at all were paid until 

 A's death, then B's interest might be called a deferred 

 annuity. No difference arises from these distinctions in 

 formulae or calculations ; and they are useful in de- 

 scribing the circumstances of complicated problems. 



A reversion, and also a deferred annuity, may be 

 certain or contingent : and the same of a reversionary 

 or deferred fixed sum. Thus A may have B's estate 

 after his death, provided he survive B ; or else A and 

 his heirs or assigns may have the same : in the first 

 case the reversion is contingent, in the second certain. 

 A life insurance may be of one or the other kind : thus 

 A may covenant for his executors to receive 100/. at 

 his death, in any case, or else if B should be then sur- 

 viving. And if, in return for such insurance, A should 

 engage to pay a yearly premium, making the first pay- 



