According to Wallace and Weisman the duration of life in any organism is determined by natural selection. An organism lives so long as it is advantageous, not to itself, but to its species, that it should live. But it would be impossible for natural selection to determine the fit duration of life, as it would be impossible for it to fix any other character, unless that character were inherited. Accordingly the hypothesis above referred to supposes that duration of life is an inherited character. So far as we are aware, however, neither of the above-mentioned naturalists, nor any other investigators, have published researches bearing on the problem of whether duration of life is or is not inherited. We are accustomed to hear of a particular man that “he comes of a long-lived family”, but the quantitative measure of the inheritance of life's duration does not yet seem to have been determined. This absence of investigation appears the more remarkable as a knowledge of the magnitude of inheritance in this respect would, we should conceive, be of primary commercial importance in the consideration of life insurance and of annuities. The biological interest of the problem, as we have already noticed, is very great.

The Institute of Actuaries had been in existence forty-one years when the first decisive steps were taken by the actuaries of America to form an Association for the promotion of the Science of Life Insurance. It happened that in February 1889, Messrs. David Parks Fackler, Clayton C. Hall, Sheppard Homans, Emory McClintock, and Howell W. St. John (the third and fourth being respectively a Corresponding Member and a Fellow of the Institute), independently thought of proposing an organization of actuaries. Somewhat by accident their ideas were intercommunicated. On the request of the four other gentlemen, Mr. Fackler sent letters to the actuaries of the regular Life Insurance Companies in the United States and Canada, which called forth replies cordially favourable to the project. Accordingly, in response to an invitation of actuaries resident in New York, on 24 April 1889 twenty-nine of the actuaries met at the Astor House in New York, and, after a conference which exhibited a marked unanimity, founded the Actuarial Society of America. On 25 April, they adopted a Constitution and elected officers.