The proper method of estimating the liabilities of an office under its policies, is a question of so much importance that numerous essays on the subject have at various times been contributed to the pages of the Journal by some of the most eminent members of the Institute, whilst Mr. Manly, in his Messenger Prize Essay, and Mr. Valentine in his extension of the same, and more recently Mr. Geo. King, in his paper in vol. xx of the Journal, have furnished us with valuable information as to the financial results arrived at by the employment of different data in valuations. The subject has been so extensively treated in these papers, that I should not have ventured to refer to it again, but for the employment recently in some quarters of a method of valuation producing certain anomalies hitherto but little noticed in the pages of the Journal, and I therefore beg to submit for the consideration of its readers the results of an investigation showing the effects of the use of that method on the reserves and profits of an office.

In looking over the rules of a few insurance societies, I could not avoid observing the want of unanimity which prevailed with respect to the manner in which they deal with suicides whose lives have been insured. This induced me to take up the subject, and obtain all the information I could from the different offices in England and Scotland. My information is gained from eighty-one out of ninety-two offices, and from the actuaries or secretaries of several of these I have received valuable assistance and useful facts. The ways are so various in which the different companies treat this subject, that it is not easy to classify them briefly. The general rule is, that a life policy is forfeited by suicide, whether the assured has been of unsound mind or not; and the following rule occurs so frequently, that it may be quoted to represent a very large proportion, which I cannot accurately ascertain, of all the insurance companies.