Observations on the mortality of the Scottish Widows' Fund and Life Assurance Society, from 1815 to 1845 / by James Begbie.

Date:
1847
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the mortality of the Scottish Widows' Fund and Life Assurance Society, from 1815 to 1845 / by James Begbie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    ON THE MORTALITY OF THE SCOTTISH WIDOWS’ FUND AND LIFE ASSURANCE SOCIETY. The substance of the following observations was recently submit- ted as a Report to the Court of Directors of the Scottish Widows’ Fund Life Assurance Society, and laid on their table. It is now, with their permission, in this somewhat extended form, presented i to the profession, as a small contribution to the science of medical statistics, particularly in reference to the subject of Life Assur- ance, the causes of death among selected lives, the connexion of these with other lesions and disorders, and the ages at which death takes place from different diseases. A table, showing the disorders (as certified to the Court of Di- rectors) of which persons assured by the Equitable Society of Lon- don have died during thirty-two years, from 1st January 1801 to 'the 31st December 1832, has been published by the learned actuary of that society, and, as far as I am aware, is the only document of the kind to which reference can be made on this subject. The improvements and discovei’ies in medicine, particularly in the field of diagnosis, during the last thirty years, when brought to bear on this subject, will necessarily render much more satisfactory and trustworthy the labours of those who may henceforward take an interest in it; and it is gratifying to know that, in connexion 1 with the Standard Life Assurance Company, it is engaging the I attention of Mr William Wood, whose zeal and accuracy, already I: well known, promise important additions to our scanty stock of J knowledge. The records of the Scottish Widows’ Fund (the first Life Assur- > ance Society established in Scotland, and now, in point of business (inferior to scarcely any in England) contain a list of G42 deaths