150 : REPORT—1868. 
305,390 life policies in force for upwards of £173,000,000, which at the end of 1867 
had increased to 403,841 policies for £233,400,000. A single company, the Mutual 
of New York, had issued in that one year 19,406 policies for £12,450,000, taking 
in new premiums upwards of £801,000. The assurances in that Company alone 
amounted to nearly £39,000,000, being almost three times the amount at present 
existing in our largest office in this country. 
Considering the great pecuniary interests at stake, the discovery of the true law 
of mortality is of deep importance. The theory of that eminent mathematician, 
Benjamin Guaipent F.R.S., that there is in the human frame a power to oppose 
destruction, which loses equal proportions in equal times, and consequently that 
the intensity of mortality is represented by a series in geometrical progression, was 
founded upon actual observations of numerous tables. Such a theory is congruous 
with many natural effects, as, for instance, the exhaustions of the receiver of an 
air-pump by strokes repeated at equal intervals of time, and it has been confirmed 
for long periods of life in most of the tables of original observations which have 
been made. There is a marked difference, however, in the constants of mortality 
in three principal periods of life, childhood, manhood, and oldage. There are also 
exceptional or climacteric years of life, and from the variety of circumstances which 
may effect health or life, such as occupation, locality, habits, exposure to disease, 
&e., so many peculiarities in each class of observations, which themselves may have 
been incorrectly or imperfectly collected, that it is very difficult to detect in any 
what may be called the true or universal law of mortality. 
A very important inquiry is now being made, under the auspices of the Institute 
of Actuaries, into the actual experience of some of the older companies. The facts 
relating to 147,000 persons admitted after medical examination as healthy lives, of 
whom about 24,000 had died, afford ample materials for many interesting deductions 
in vital statistics, and are especially valuable for the accuracy of the records, A 
similar investigation is being made in Germany and in the United States of America, 
conducted by scientific institutions of a like character, and by some of the leading 
mathematicians of those countries. 
It is to be regretted that no authentic information as to the total amounts in- 
sured in various branches is known in this country. In fire insurance a rough es- 
timate, deduced from the duty, would give about £1,445,000,000 in. 1867, inclu- 
ding nearly €80,000,000 on farming stock. The total amount of marine insurance 
business is equally uncertain, though it must be increasing with the rapid strides 
of commercial enterprise. Mr. Morris Black, in his analysis of the accounts of marine 
insurance companies established since 1859, gives the premiums received by eleven 
of these companies in 1867 as nearly £2,800,000, insuring about £227,000,000; but 
this does not include the five oldest and largest companies, nor the great amount 
underwritten by the members of Lloyd’s. The total value of shipping and com- 
mercial products liable to risk in voyages between different ports would be the 
more interesting, as the Statistical Committee of Lloyd’s have for the last two 
years, by the aid of their honorary secretary, Mr. Jeula, collected and compared some 
of the most striking results of the accidents and losses in which, asa great maritime 
nation, we take so great ashare. In 10,587 vessels in 1866, to which accidents of some 
kind happened, and 11,424 vessels in 1867, the accidents of different kinds, whether 
sailing vessels or steamers (the latter being about 10 per cent. of the total), show 
a remarkable regularity in the percentage, and indicate the value of a more exten- 
ded inquiry. The tables comprise losses and casualties in all parts of the world, 
and are divided into thirty-one geographical sections, for the voyages between the 
ports in each section. With these and the annual wreck registers of the Board of 
Trade for the dangers nearer our own coasts, and fuller statistics from our own and 
foreign countries, on a uniform plan, of the amount and value of shipping and car- 
goes passing from port to port in different trades, we may expect a great increase in 
our general knowledge on these subjects. 
At the Statistical Congresses held in Paris in 1855, and at Berlin in 1863, it was 
recommended to collect the statistics of all branches of insurance, in such a form 
that the progress of nations therein might be compared. The heads of the Goyern- 
ment Statistical Departments of several countries are now engaged in maturing & 
plan for comprehending these and other. commercial statistics in a full report; : 
‘e-% 
pares 
