NOBTALITY TABLES. The discussion of the gen eral subject of mortality tables will be found in the article on VITAL STATISTICS. WC shall note only a few tables which have been in general use among life-insu•ance companies. The early policies were for short periods, and rates were based rather on guesswork than on any definite notion of the actual risk assumed. The premium rates were accordingly high and were independent of the age of the insured. The Amicable of England, which worked on the assessment plan, continued as late as 1807 to make uniform assess ments on all ages. partially proteeting itself by admitting to membership only persons between twelve and forty-five inclusive. When the more exact calculation of risks was attempted the early English companies relied chiefly on tables prepared by Halley (1693) and Siissmileh (17.111. Afterwards the Northampton table came into general use. This was prepared by Dr. Thomas Price from the registers kept in the parish at Northampton for the years 1733 to 1783. The Northampton table was later superseded by the Carlisle table. This was prepared by Mine about 1815 on the basis of tun classes of statistics, enumerations of the population of two parishes of Carlisle in 17S0 and and the records of deaths in the two parishes for the years 1779 to 17K. Although the data on which the table was based were very scanty. the total number of deaths. for example, tieing only 1810. they were worked over with so much care that the results were much more accurate than those embodied in the Northampton table. 'the Carlisle table is still used by some English companies.
All the tables thus far referred to, as well as others of the same period, were based on the life experience of the general population. The first table which took account only of insured lives was based on the experience of the Equitable Assurance Society and was published in Comparatively little use has been made of this table, but a similar table, based On the com bined experience of seventeen English life-insur ance and published in 1843, is still used by many English companies, and is the author ized table for the calchlation of reserves in most American States. It is variously known as the Actriaries"fable, the Combined Experience Table, and the Seventeen Offives"fable. A similar table prepared under the direction of the Institute of Actuaries from the experience of twenty Eng lish and Scotch companies was publislu•d in 1S69. This table is tending to supplant both the Carlisle and the Combined Experience table in British offices, but has not been officially rec ognized in any American State.
The early American offices adopted English tables, first the Northampton, later the Carlisle, more reeently the Actuaries' or Combined Experi ence tables. 'Meantime several tables bused on
American experience have been worked out, but none of them has come into general use except the so-called 'American Experience' table. This was constructed by N1r. Boman; from the experi enee of the Mutual Life Insuranee Company of New York. More elaborate tables have since been worked out, based on the experience of thirty American offices. These deal separately with mimic and female lives. and correlate mor tality with place of residence, with cause of death, and with other phenomena. They furnish the material for nmeh more accurate classifica tion of risks in life insurance than is now at tempted, but no company has seen fit to adopt a schedule of premium rates based on the new in formation. At the present time the two tables in general use among insurance on, in the United States, and authorized by the insurance depart ments of the carious states for the ealeulation of reserves, are the English Combined Experi ence tahle and the American Experience table. The following tables show the number surviving at the end of ten•year periods out of 1000 living at age ten according to the different tables men tioned above. For purposes of comparison data have been added from the mortality table 'Tenni mended by a recent session of Fra ternal Congress for the use of fraternal hene fieiary societies. This table starts with age twenty, and not with age ten, as the other tables do. In order to make a ready comparison pos sible. the Fraternal table as here given assumes 925 living at age twenty.
Both the Actuaries' and the American tables are known to be too favorable to the insurance companies, that is, to indicate a higher death-rate than actually prevails. and neither of them makes any attempt to classify risks according to any other factor than the age of the insured. More over, the numbers for the advanced ages are based almost entirely on a priori principles, and not on actual observation, since historical data for those ages are very incomplete. The older in suranee companies, which have done a large whole-life business, such as the Presbyterian Min isters' Fund, the New England Mutual, and the Connecticut lutual, show a heavy saving over the Actuaries' tables in the later as well as in the earlier years. The following figures are taken from the Actuaries' table of mortality, and will serve to show the character of a mortality table. The 14,m•es from age thirty to age ninety are here condensed in order to shorten the table. Other columns are often added, such as one giv ing the per cent. of deaths each year to the living at the beginning of the year, and one giving the expectation of life at each age.