It is not proposed in the present paper to take up any original investigation, the main object being to bring up to date the papers submitted to the Institute in 1876 and 1877, and which appeared in J.I.A., xix, p. 381, and xx, p. 233. These papers were written not very long after the publication of the Twenty Offices' Experience, with the Monetary Tables based thereon, and to it they were almost entirely devoted. The peculiar rates of mortality prevailing amongst assured lives were investigated, by means of ten mortality tables calculated for central ages at entry, tables which were called by name “Analyzed.” That name has since been superseded by the name “Select”, and the tables themselves, together with the annuity tables based upon them, have become obsolete, their place having been taken by Dr. Sprague's much more complete, and much better, “Select” Tables. The Analyzed Mortality Tables, however, served their purpose, as the main object in taking the matter up was, to estimate the reserves of life offices when the mortality of lives assured is kept separate according to age at entry.

The subject of Temporary Assurances has been suggested as one that would be of interest to Members of the Institute of Actuaries, and the present paper is an attempt to examine the mortality among lives who have been assured by this class of policy. All the particulars that have been used are given in the “Combined Experience of Assured Lives—Endowment Assurances and Minor Classes of Assurance” (C. & E. Layton, 1900), but for convenience of reference Table I has been extracted and gives the experience in a slightly altered form for the durations 0–4 years, and Table II shows the groups into which the data were thrown so as to render them less uneven. The reason for omitting the experience beyond duration “4” was that it is generally assumed for practical purposes that selection has worn off by that time.

The Joint Committee on Mortality Investigation asked Dr. Sprague some time ago to graduate the Annuity Experience by the Graphic Method with the view of determining the period during which selection lasts; but as he was too fully occupied to allow of his personally undertaking the proposed graduation, the work was undertaken by the writer on principles arranged in consultation with Dr. Sprague.