Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II. MORTALITY TABLES. If insurance is simply a method of distributing or apportioning individual losses among a large number of persons who enter into the arrangement for mutual protection, the fact will at once suggest itself that each person should pay not only in proportion to the amount of his possible loss, but also in proportion to the likelihood that that loss will occur. Risks are classified for fire insurance according to the hazard of fire. In like manner, the life most likely to end should pay the highest premium. Asid : from the special risk to which any individual life may, at any given time, be subjected by reason of sickness or accident, it is evident that the older a man grows the nearer he is to death. Consequently, in determining the amount of premiums which any individual should pay, it is evident that his age must be the prime factor. The first thing, then, to be determined is the effect of age upon the rate of mortality—in other words, how many deaths within a year ::??? be expected among a given number of men of any given age. No business in the world has a more reliable basis upon which to make its calculations than that of life insurance. The rate of mortality among lives of different ages has been made a matter of study and record for more than 150 years. The tabulated results are known as " Mortality Tables " or " Tables of Mortality." The first used as a basis for life insurance was the Northampton Table. This was formed by Dr. Price from observations on the mortality in the town of Northampton, England, from 1735 to 1780. This table is no longer used for valuations, and has never been used in this country. The Carlisle Table was formed by Mr. Milne from observations in the town of Carlisle, England, from 1778 to 1787. It is still in...