Insurances on the Lives of Females.

By the kind permission of the Managers of the Associated

Scottish Life Assurance Offices, we are enabled to lay before our readers the following Report of a Committee appointed to consider as to the Rates of Assurance on Female Lives. We are further in a position to state, that the Report was adopted, and that the extra premiums recommended in it are now charged by the majority of the Scottish Life Offices.

Your Committee have had before them,

I. A memorandum by Mr. Chisholm of the relative Mortality of Male and Female Assured Lives between ages 20 and 44, according to the experience of Ten Scottish Life Offices to December 1863; from which it appears that, out of 10,000 assured males at those ages, about 85 die in a year; while out of the same number of females, 111 die in a year; the difference being 26, so that the additional risk is met by a charge of 5s. per £100 per annum.

II. A Report by Dr. William Farr, F.R.S., to the Directors of the Standard Life Assurance Company, dated 31 March 1874, in reply to a memorandum addressed to him as to rates of assurance on female lives. He states that, among the general population, the mortality among females exceeds that among males from the age of 18 to 38, and is then less. An extra premium of 1s. per £100 will meet the extra risk, but the whole life premium is rather less for females than for males.

The mortality in childbirth among the female population at large is about 1 in 200, which gives a premium of 10s. per £100 for each confinement; or assuming a confinement once in two years, 5s. per £100 per annum. He points out that this is an average premium, the mortality in lying-in hospitals being much higher, and among the well-to-do classes, lower.

His general conclusion is that women are subject to the special risk of child-bearing, but are subject in a less degree than men, to some other risks; and he recommends that any healthy woman, above the age of 21, and ascertained to be sound as regards her state as a possible mother, shall be accepted at the ordinary rate;-women pregnant for the first time to be charged 10s. per £100 extra.

III. A note of the practice of the Scottish Offices and of some of the English Offices in regard to these risks.

Your Committee believe that it is impossible to make the examination of females proposed for insurance sufficiently strict to carry out satisfactorily the policy recommended by Dr. Farr.

They therefore recommend that an additional charge of 5s. percent per annum on the sum assured, be made in all assurances on lives of females under the age of 50 years, but that this charge should be discontinued after they attain that age. When a female proposed for insurance is actually pregnant for the first time, the Committee think

that circumstances may exist, not discoverable by the company's medical examiner, involving unusual risk in the confinement, which may have led to the proposal for assurance being then made; and they therefore recommend that in these cases a further charge of 10s. per £100 for the first year be made.

Account of a recent Change in the Law relating to Life Insurance in the Netherlands. By M. HENRIQUEZ PIMENTEL, of The Hague, Corresponding Member of the Institute of Actuaries. THE commercial code of the Netherlands contained, among other articles relating to life insurance not being on the mutual system-the following:

302. The life of a person can be insured in favour of anyone having an interest therein, for a term which must be stated in the policy under pain of nullity.

The other articles of the same code relating to life insurance

are:

303. A person interested in a life can effect an insurance even unknown to, or without the consent of, the life assured.

304. The policy shall contain

1. The date of the contract of assurance,

2. The name of the assured,

3. The name of the person whose life is insured,

4. The dates of commencement and termination of the assurer's risk,

5. The sum assured,

6. The premium.

305. The rates and conditions of the assurance are wholly left to be agreed on by the parties.

306. If the person whose life is insured was already dead at the time the contract was entered into, the contract shall be void, unless it shall be agreed to the contrary, even when the assured could not be aware of the death.

307. The assurance shall be void if a person who insures his own life commits suicide, or is punished by death.

308. These provisions shall not apply to widows' funds, tontines, mutual life insurance societies, or any similar associations founded on the probabilities of life and death, which charge fixed payments, either single or annual, or both.

Long before the code existed, life insurances were effected in Holland, not only for a fixed term of years, but for the whole duration of life. The number of insurances gradually increased, and life insurance became an important business. Notwithstanding the strict language of the code, there did not seem to be any doubt

as to the legality of the contracts thus entered into, when suddenly, in 1870, the District Court of Amsterdam decided that a whole life insurance contract had no legal existence in the Netherlands, because no fixed time is specified, which is required by the code under pain of nullity. The Provincial Court at Amsterdam confirmed the judgment in appeal, whilst the High Court of the Netherlands took, in cassation, no decision about the question. So long ago as 1872, M. Adan, in the Moniteur d'Assurance, stigmatized the above decision as being retrograde, as contrary to the principles of political economy, and as based upon a too literal interpretation of the words of the code. Such a decision could not fail to have injurious consequences, both for the assured and the assurers. It deprived life insurance of all valid basis, introducing doubt in place of certainty. With the object of putting an end to this uncertainty, the Dutch Government shortly submitted a bill to Parliament, drawn up in the following terms:

§ 1.

Article 302 of the Commercial Code shall be read as follows:

The life of a person can be insured in favour of anyone having an interest therein, either for the whole duration of life, or for a term stated in the policy. Life insurance policies effected before the passing of the act, but in accordance with the amended Article 302, are declared to be valid.

The bill was much opposed in some quarters, among others by M. Levy, who objected to a partial reform; while other equally eminent lawyers, as for example, MM. A. de Pinto and Kist, supported the bill; so also did M. Godefroi, a member of the Lower House of the States General, and formerly Minister of Justice. The two Houses adopted the bill by a comparatively large majority. A return has thus been made to correct principles. The Dutch Government deserves all praise for taking action in the matter.

NOTES AND QUERIES.

The following notes form a small contribution to our knowledge as to the extra risk attaching to certain occupations. We shall be glad to receive further information on the same or similar subjects from any of our readers who may be able to furnish it.

(1.) Railway Engine Drivers and Stokers.-In 1866, 1867, and 1868, the Board of Trade returns give the following numbers of

violent deaths as having occurred on the railways of England and Wales among servants of the companies:-62+62 +53=59 annually. At the census of 1871 the numbers of railway drivers and stokers in England 13,715. But many deaths must have occurred in consequence of these accidents after the nature of the accidents was reported to the Board of Trade. And a small number of servants were, possibly, guards, pointsmen, and porters.

(2.) Ashantee Expedition. In reply to an enquiry made on behalf of the Scottish Life Offices, it was stated by the War Office in May 1874

"1st. That the number of officers employed in the Expedition

was

"2nd. That, of the above, the number actually exposed to

war risk, may be estimated at

"3rd. That the number killed in action, or who died of

disease, was

"4th. And that the numbers wounded and

invalided were

302

168

15

respectively 27 and 44 "The above numbers are exclusive of the West India regiments." We believe a few more deaths have since occurred.

(3.) Pilots. It is desired to ascertain whether the lives of persons described as pilots, may be safely insured at the ordinary rate of premium, or whether an extra premium should be charged for occupation.

The numbers of pilots in England and Wales, as found at the censuses of 1861 and 1871, were 2,980 and 3,039; showing an increase of 59 during the ten years, or, say, 6 each year on an average. Their ages are shown in the following table:

Number of Pilots enumerated at different Ages.

The Supplement to the 25th Annual Report of the RegistrarGeneral for England, gives the number of deaths of persons described as pilots, registered during the two years 1860 and 1861, distributed according to age. The numbers being comparatively small, the most satisfactory course will be to compare the anticipated deaths according to the Institute HM table with the actual deaths. For this purpose the number of expected deaths among the 2,980 pilots has been calculated, and the double of this is assumed to be the expected number of deaths in the years 1860 and 1861. The expected and actual deaths are then as follows:

146

5960

It will be seen that the actual deaths exceed the expected to an extent which it does not seem prudent to disregard; taking all ages, the average rate of mortality experienced is ='02450. The average rate that would have been experienced according to the Institute table is 123.9 =02078, the difference being 00372, which gives us 7s. 5d. as the annual extra premium per £100, that will cover the risk attaching to the occupation. 85, we have 135 actual deaths against 116.9 expected, which lead to If we neglect the ages above 6s. 2d. as the annual premium per £100, that will cover the extra risk. We understand that proper steps were taken to secure the enumeration of the pilots who might be on board ship on the night when the

census was taken.

5960

T. B. S.