When Mr. Manly first put forward the idea of constructing a Model Office for whole of life policies, endowment assurance business was in its infancy. That idea was afterwards improved on by Mr. King, who substituted an actual experience of entrants and withdrawals for the assumptions which Mr. Manly, in the absence of data, was forced to make; and when, twenty-five years later, another Model Office was constructed on the basis of the new experience, the age distribution of the business was found to be so little altered, that it was possible to retain the older figures. In the meantime, however, endowment assurances had ceased to be a minor class; and their growth has been so rapid and continuous that they now form one of the most important sections of the business. It was probably the hope of many that Mr. King would have found time to extend his Model Office to endowment assurances, and it was only because he stated that his other duties would not permit him at present to do so, that I have undertaken to supply the extension.

The controversy which took place a few years ago (J.I.A. xxvi, 77 and 420 ; xxix, 59, 232 and 236) between Dr. Sprague and the late Mr. Woolhouse on Summation Formulas for the graduation of mortality tables, and more particularly on that of Mr. Woolhouse himself, left the question in a very unsatisfactory state, as a few extracts from the writings of these two great, but divergent, authorities will sufficiently show:

Dr. Sprague, xxvi, 111, said, “We must include in one “general condemnation all such graduation formulas as “Mr. Woolhouse's, Mr. Higham's, and Mr. Ansell's. They all “have a tendency to distort the true law of the facts”; and, again, xxix, 61, “I see no sufficient reason for distinguishing “between his (Mr. Woolhouse's) formula, and others of a like “kind ; and I include them all in one general condemnation.”

In contradiction of this, Mr. Woolhouse, xxvi, 424, said, “The method (his own) stands alone, as systematically based on “rational principles”; and, again, xxix, 241, “I emphatically” repeat that, with practicable data, the application of my system “of adjustment to a mortality table will always give the best ”possible results.”