270 ESSAY ON PROBABILITIES. 



The proposed table of Mr. Finlaison (page 259) affords 

 a striking illustration of this point. It is accompanied 

 by a table representing the average premiums of all the 

 offices. At the age of thirty, Mr. Finlaison proposes 

 to demand 17 per cent, less than the average of what is 

 now asked by the offices ; at the age of 60, this same 

 able and strenuous advocate of reduction would only 

 reduce the average premium of the offices by 3J per 

 cent. I now put down the present value of 100/., pay- 

 able at the end of the year in which a life drops, from 

 the Northampton and Carlisle tables, at 3 per cent., 

 and for different ages, together with the percentage 

 which must be taken from the former to reduce it to the 

 latter. 



In offices, then, which continue to use the Northamp- 

 ton table throughout, the safety rate is levied upon those 

 who enter at the age of 20, to the amount of 2 1 per cent, 

 out of the total sum they pay; while on those aged 65 

 it only amounts to 2^ per cent. The Carlisle table 

 represents the experience of the Equitable Society very 

 nearly. 



Again, the Amicable Society now charges premiums 

 deduced from its own experience, and in which the 

 fundamental inequality of the Northampton table is 

 corrected. It will be worth while to compare the aver- 

 age of all the offices given by Mr. Finlaison, with the 



