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Observations on Gompertz's Law of Mortality and the Dependence between it and Simpson's Rule for finding the Value of an Annuity on Three Lives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 August 2016

Extract

In the correspondence that has recently taken place respecting the origin of Gompertz's formula expressive of the law of mortality, it has been stated, much to my surprise, that the investigation first given by that gentleman in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society for the year 1825 was defective and inaccurate. I do not here propose to reopen the controversy on the subject of the originality of discovery, or to enter upon a renewed discussion of certain other allegations that have been so efficiently disposed of by Professor De Morgan and Mr. Sprague; but, after the statement to which I have more particularly alluded, it is only right that I should avail myself of the present opportunity to communicate the circumstance that Mr. Gompertz kindly presented me with a copy of his valuable Memoir in January, 1839, in which the various misprints had, in the most legible manner, been previously corrected by himself, and that the processes so corrected are perfectly accurate in every respect. In order that any one may be enabled to judge of this for himself, I shall here give a faithful transcription of that portion of the Memoir which contains the mathematical investigation of the formula, as it will occupy but little space.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Institute and Faculty of Actuaries 1863

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References

page 121 note * Curiously enough, I wrote the date in the volume at the time of receiving it.

page 123 note * Mr. Sprague, in the October Number of the Journal, p. 43, states that “the chance of living a year (=g (p-1) p x decreases in geometrical progression.” This is either an inadvertence or a misprint, into which it is immaterial to inquire, as there can be no doubt that the logarithm of the chance of living a year was meant to be expressed. The formula given in the parenthesis is a superposed exponential.

page 129 note * By making , the formula (7) gives

which is by far the most convenient form for calculations in general.