Simultaneously with the publication of the national tables various sectional tables have usually been prepared, e.g., the three successive Healthy English Life Tables, derived from the experience of the districts showing a low death rate. The most recent national table is the English Life Table No. 9, based on the 1921 Census and the deaths in the years 192o, 1921 and 1922.
In the United States of America the first important tables prepared by the Government were based on the 1910 Census and the deaths in 1909, 1910 and 1911 in certain States situated mainly in the north-eastern section of the country. Numerous tables have been prepared from the records of life assurance companies, the earliest being those of Griffith Davies, based on experiences of the Equitable Society of London. Tables in general use have, however, been compiled from the combined experience of a number of Life Offices. The first table of this nature was the Seventeen Offices, or Actuaries' Table. The date of the close of the observations was Dec. 31, 1837. It was a weakness of this table that it was based on contracts a large proportion of which were of short duration.
A more extensive investigation, that of the combined experi ence of 20 British Offices up to the end of 1863, was carried out by the Institute of Actuaries. Two very important tables were obtained from this investigation, those relating to healthy male lives, the aggregate 1-1'n table, and the truncated aggregate table. Dr. Thomas Bond Sprague later prepared a select table, the Hm, based on the assumption that the experience of the first five years of assurance could be linked up with the experi ence. Assurance business in Great Britain was for many years conducted on the basis of these tables.
The most recent investigation of the experience of assured lives in Great Britain is that known as the British Offices Ex perience, compiled from the experience of 6o British Offices dur ing the period 1863-93. This investigation was carried out on a most elaborate and comprehensive scale, and the volume describ ing "The Principles and Methods" adopted is an indispensable handbook for all students of life tables. The principal tables were the Om select and the Om and aggregate tables, and the select and aggregate tables, based on the experience of participating and non-participating policies respectively. The mortality of other types of policies was also investigated, and indicated that generally the contracts with the lowest rates of premium showed the highest rates of mortality.
The mortality of annuitant lives was also examined, and the results published in the O[am] and Om tables, which displaced the tables derived from the earlier Government Life Annuitant investigations as the authoritative standard for annuity contracts. These tables are, in turn, being superseded by the Life Office Annuitants 1900-1920 Tables AEml and Aul, and those based on the contemporaneous mortality experience of Government Life Annuitants. In the United States the most recent authoritative
table for annuitants is the "American Annuitants" table, compiled from the experience of 20 companies carried down to the year 1918. (See ANNUITY.) In the United States the table which in addition to the Seventeen Offices or Actuaries Table is used as a standard mortality table is the American Experience Table, 1868, compiled by Mr. Sheppard Homans. It was intended to represent the death rate among insured lives in America after the effects of medical selection were eliminated, and has been universally employed for valuation purposes.
The most recent American investigation produced in 1918 the American Men Mortality Table, derived from the experience of 59 companies during the period 190o-1915, which has already had a great influence on the operations of American insurance com panies.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.—The Institute of Actuaries, Text Book, Part II., by Mr. George King has for nearly half a century been recognized throughout the world as the standard work on life contingencies. Life Contingencies, by Mr. E. F. Spurgeon, is a more recent textbook, published by the Institute of Actuaries as the successor to Mr. King's work. There are numerous papers in the Journal of the Institute of Actuaries, and in the Transactions of the Faculty of Actuaries. The Theory of the Construction of Tables of Mortality, by the late Sir G. F. Hardy, deals particularly with graduation. The Principles and Methods volume gives an account of the British Offices experience, and in Mortality of Annuitants, 1900-1920, selection and future improvement in vitality are discussed. All these as well as numerous volumes of life tables are published by C. and E. Layton, London. A useful non-technical work, "The Construction of Mortality and Sickness Tables—a Primer," by W. P. Elderton and R. C. Fippard, is published by A. and C. Black, London. The English Life Tables are contained in successive Decennial Supplements to the Reports of tie Registrar General, published by the Stationery Office. The English Life Table No. 9, together with a Report on Life Tables, by Sir Alfred W. Watson, K.C.B., the Government Actuary, is contained in Part I. of the 1921 Decennial Supplement. The Mortality of Govern ment Life Annuitants, 1900-1920, is also a Stationery Office publica tion. The Actuarial Society of America has published a number of volumes on the investigation of mortality experience, and the Trans actions of the Society include many important papers. Other works on life tables are included in the publications of the Spectator Company of New York. (P. G. B.) LIFT : see ELEVATORS.