MANAGEMENT OF AN INSURANCE OFFICE. 269 



From this comparison, Mr. Morgan concluded that 

 the superior vitality of the young and middle ages was 

 the effect of selection, which wore out, so to speak, after 

 the age at which no new members were admitted; thereby 

 proving, in his opinion, at once the effect of selection, 

 and the excellence of the Northampton table. Now, it 

 obviously cannot prove both of these things : granting 

 the latter, it would certainly go a great way to prove the 

 former ; and granting the former, it does not impugn 

 the latter : which is all that can be said. But, if it 

 should happen that the mortality of the Northampton 

 table is near the truth at the older ages, and very much 

 above it at the younger, the sort of result shown in the 

 preceding comparison would follow of course ; and this 

 circumstance, demonstrated as it is by other and inde- 

 pendent tables, is, no doubt, the true explanation. 



If such be the case, where is the fairness of using a 

 table which demands premiums very much larger than 

 the real risks from the young, while it admits older lives 

 on more easy terms ? Ought the older lives to enjoy 

 any privilege in this respect ? Quite the reverse ; for, 

 (page 253.) belonging to a class which is less known, 

 and entering also in smaller numbers, with results there- 

 fore more subject to fluctuation, the percentage, added to 

 the premiums deduced from a true table, ought rather to 

 be larger in the case of old lives than in that of young 

 ones. The best customers, both in number and quality, 

 ought not to come worst off. 



