On the causes of death in the Scottish Widows' Fund Life Assurance Society from January 1853 to January 1860 / by James Begbie.

  • Begbie, James Warburton, 1826-1876.
Date:
1860
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the causes of death in the Scottish Widows' Fund Life Assurance Society from January 1853 to January 1860 / by James Begbie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

    19/32 (page 19)
    demonstrated by Louis, who informs us, that in 112 cases which he himself examined of persons dead of Consumption, there was but one in which both lungs were free from adhesions. Bronchitis furnished forty-four deaths to the general mortality, or 4^- per cent. Of these, fourteen only occurred before 60 years of age, and thirty after that period of life. A considerable number of these had passed their expectation term; and the loss to the Society from this cause is comparatively light. The average expectation of this class of emerged risks was 2476 years; the average survivancy was 19 37 years. V. Under the head of Diseases of the Heart and Blood-vessels, there has been a large increase of deaths during the last septennial period. In the first report presented to the Society, the deaths were 53 in number, or 8j per cent, of the total mortality; in the second report they amounted to 66, or 9^ per cent.; but, in the present in- vestigation, they reach the somewhat alarming number of 135,—that is, 13f per cent, of the total mortality. This at first sight may appear discouraging, but is satisfactorily accounted for. Chronic Disease of the Heart, which accounts for 122 of the 135 deaths, or 12^ per cent, of the general mortality, is, perhaps more than any other, the disease of old age ; and hence we find, on a reference to our tables, that of these 122 deaths, twenty-two only occurred before the age of 50, thus leaving 100 to be distributed over the four consecutive decennial periods in the proportions following:—twenty-eight between 50 and 60 ; forty-one between 60 and 70; twenty-five between 70 and 80; and six beyond 80 years of age. Thus, advancing years and mature age, which have brought this source of mortality to so high a figure, enable the Society to show, in comparison with younger associations, a great improvement in the survivancy of its risks, and a much less serious loss in the business of Life Assurance. In his last report on the deaths in the Standard Company, Dr. Christison, in reference to Diseases of the Heart, mentions that no improvement has taken place between the one quinquennium and the other in the survivancy of the present risks after their acceptance. Formerly this appeared to be two-fifths of tho expectation of life. On the present occasion the average survivancy of each is 9 22 years, the average expectation term 235 years ; so that the ratio is again nearly two-fifths. And