The causes of death among the assured of the Scottish Widows' Fund Life Assurance Society, from 1867 to 1873 inclusive / by J. Warburton Begbie.

  • Begbie James Warburton, 1826-1876.
Date:
1874
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The causes of death among the assured of the Scottish Widows' Fund Life Assurance Society, from 1867 to 1873 inclusive / by J. Warburton 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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    abundantly clear that the extra premium imposed has fallen far short of the requirement in every individual case. The Society’s rule not to accept a proposer in whose immediate family more than two members have died of consumption, although on the whole a reasonable, as it unquestionably is a safe one, may admit of exceptions being made. The hereditary character of pulmonary consumption is undoubted, but the disease is not always of this nature, and it may with confidence be affirmed that even in families where several deaths have occurred from con- sumption, the matter of heredity has by no means been established. If the proposer have survived by several years the age at which consumption proved fatal to his relatives, and possess, as is not very unfrequently the case in consumptive families, an evidently vigorous constitution, he or she may be regarded as an eligible subject for Life Assurance. 4. Disease of the Lungs.—Under this head there appear fifty-one emerged risks; all males. Of these 51, 1 died between 20 and 30; 11 between 30 and 40; 14 between 40 and 50; 6 between 50 and 60; 11 between 60 and 70 ; 7 between 70 and 80; and 1 above 80. Three of the fifty-one were accepted with an additional premium. 1st, Insured at 41, with 5 years added to age on account of chronic bronchial affection; expectation of life 26 years, realization only one year. 2nd, Insured at 26, with 5 years added to age, “of a strumous family,” died at sea of “ Congestion of Lungs; ” his expectation was 38 years,—he lived 6. 3rd, accepted at 25, with 3 years added to age, “look of delicacy;” expectation 37,—lived 16 years. “ Congestion of Lungs ” and “ Chronic Disease of Lungs ” are the terms chiefly employed in the certificates of death included under this head. There can, however, be little doubt that several instances of Consumption are ranked under “Disease of the Lungs.” 5. Haemoptysis.—Three males. Of these 3, death occurred in 1 at 57 ; in 1 at 64; and in 1 at 78. The first survived his