Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 August 2016
The two-fold purpose of this paper is:
(i) To hypothesize the existence of a Basic Curve of Deaths, a curve to which it is suggested all curves of deaths are, as it were, striving to attain—the ‘idea’ of a curve of deaths, almost in a Platonic sense, a curve applicable not only to humanity, but equally to all forms of life.
(ii) To seek a representation of that curve by a function containing as few parameters as possible, on the principle that while there are other functions which fit the observations more exactly, we here prefer a simple function which fits them well enough.