bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The porcine glucocorticoid receptor: sequencing a 2.1 kb cDNA fragment and raising specific polyclonal antibodies for western blotting, immunoprecipitation and immunohistochemistry
Authors: Gutscher M. , Eder S. , Müller M. , Claus R.
Published: August 2016

Glucocorticoids and their tissue receptors are involved in many metabolic and developmental processes. Until now only two short fragments with a total length of 200 amino acids were known from the glucocorticoid receptor of the pig. Therefore we sequenced the main part (2.1 kb) of the porcine receptor. In addition, we subcloned a cDNA fragment of this sequence coding for 135 aa of the modulatory region in a pET expression vector. The protein fragment was expressed in E. coli as a his-tag fusion protein. In the SDS-PAGE, the crude E. coli extracts showed an enrichment of a 15 kDa protein which corresponds to the estimated molecular weight for the receptor fragment.

After lysis and Ni-NTA affinity chromatography under denaturing conditions the protein was further purified either by dialysis (native protein) or by SDS-PAGE (linearized form). Both forms were emulsified together in adjuvant and used for rabbit immunization.

The resulting antibodies were characterized by western blot analysis, immunoprecipitation, and additionally by immunohistochemistry. Western blot analysis confirmed the binding of the denatured protein by the antiserum and revealed a high binding affinity. Immunoprecipitation demonstrated that both the occupied and unoccupied forms of the receptor are detected. The specificity of the antiserum for pGCR was additionally demonstrated by immunohistochemistry.
Microbial activities of faeces from unweaned and adult pigs, in relation to selected fermentable carbohydrates
Authors: Bauer E. , Williams B. A. , Voigt C. , Mosenthin R. , Verstegen M. W. A.
Published: August 2016

A comparison of in vitro microbial activity was made between inocula from faeces of adult and unweaned pigs, using a range of carbohydrate-rich substrates. The substrates tested were classified into groups (fibre-rich, grains, gums, pectin, saccharides, storage carbohydrates, and miscellaneous). Proximate and fibre analyses were determined for all substrates tested. Fermentation kinetics were measured according to the cumulative gas production technique. End-point products such as gas, volatile fatty acids and ammonia were also determined. The faeces from the adult pigs (ATF) were collected from four castrated finisher pigs (Dutch Landrace×Great Yorkshire). These were offered a diet based on highly digestible maize starch and fish meal, so as to be as free as possible of fermentable carbohydrates. The unweaned piglet faeces were collected from 19 unweaned piglets (male and female) which were 27 to 30 days old. The parameters were tested for significance by an analysis of variance using the Tukey's studentized range test of multiple comparisons. There were significant differences in the fermentation patterns both due to source of substrate and inoculum. It would appear that the metabolic activity of the microflora does differ significantly between adult and weanling pigs, though this varied for the different carbohydrates tested. Suggestions are made as to how to select potential carbohydrate ingredients for an in vivo experiment, based on their in vitro fermentation characteristics.
Size distribution of bovine steroidogenic luteal cells during pregnancy
Authors: Arikan Ş , Yigit A.
Published: August 2016

This study was designed to investigate the size distribution of bovine steroidogenic luteal cells throughout pregnancy. Corpora lutea collected from three different stages of pregnancy were used. Luteal tissue was dissociated into single-cell suspension by enzyme treatments. Cells were stained for 3β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (HSD) activity a marker for steroidogenic cells. The steroidogenic cells covered a wide spectrum of size ranging from 10 to 60 µm in diameter. There was a significant increase in mean cell diameter (P > 0·05) as pregnancy progressed. Mean diameter of 3β-HSD positive cells increased from 17·03 (s.e. 1·3) µm in the corpus luteum of early pregnancy to 33·38 (s.e. 2·4) µm in the corpus luteum of advanced pregnancy. The ratio of large (>22 µm in diameter) to small (10 to 22 µm in diameter) luteal cells was 0·32 : 1·0 in the early pregnancy, with the 10 to 22 µm cell size class predominant. However, the ratio of large to small luteal cells was increased to 6·49 : 1·0 µm as pregnancy advanced and 23 to 42 µm cell sizes become predominant. It is likely that small luteal cells develop into large cells as gestation progresses. Development of pregnancy is associated with an increase in size of steroidogenic luteal cells.
The relationships between leptin and vitamin A levels in plasma of fattening cattle supplemented with vitamin A
Authors: Tokuda T. , Kono S. , Fujihara T.
Published: August 2016

The objective of this study was to examine the effect of dietary vitamin A (retinol) on leptin in cattle. The relationship between plasma leptin and insulin was also examined. The experiment studies 16 9-month-old steers over the following 20-month fattening period. Four treatment diets were given to four steers in each of four groups. Cattle in treatment A were given a diet high in vitamin A (9000 to 10500 µg/day) throughout the experiment. Cattle in treatment B were given a diet low in vitamin A (300 to 4500 µg/day) for 0 to 10 months, after that they were given the high vitamin A diet during the period 10 to 20 months. Cattle in treatment C were given the low vitamin A diet for 0 to 14 months, after that they were given the high vitamin A diet for the period 14 to 20 months. Cattle in treatment D were given the low vitamin A diet throughout the experiment. Plasma samples were collected at 2-month intervals during the experiment to determine the plasma leptin, insulin and vitamin A concentrations. Plasma leptin concentration significantly increased over the fattening period (P< 0·001) but did not differ between the treatments (P> 0·05). Plasma leptin concentration was positively correlated with insulin concentration (r = 0·44,P< 0·001), although it was not correlated with plasma vitamin A concentration (r = –0·01,P> 0·05). It was concluded that dietary vitamin A in cattle does not affect plasma leptin concentration.
The effect of feeding salmon oil to sows throughout pregnancy on pre-weaning mortality of piglets
Authors: Rooke J.A. , Sinclair A.G. , Edwards S.A. , Cordoba R. , Pkiyach S. , Penny P.C. , Penny P. , Finch A.M. , Horgan G.W.
Published: August 2016

Salmon oil (16·5 kg /t), a source of long-chain polyunsaturated n-3 fatty acids, was included in diets offered to multiparous sows during pregnancy and lactation to measure responses in pre-weaning mortality and performance of piglets in two studies. The first study, carried out under commercial conditions, included 196 sows which were offered salmon oil and control diets from immediately post service until weaning. The same diets were also offered to 10 sows per treatment from day 58 of pregnancy in a controlled nutritional study which measured the effects of salmon oil on piglet tissue fatty acid composition. Offering salmon oil to the sow significantly increased gestation length and decreased individual piglet birth weight but had no effect on litter size at birth. Overall, salmon oil reduced pre-weaning mortality from 11·7% to 10·2% mainly by reducing the incidence of deaths from crushing by the sow. More detailed analysis of mortality using a general linear mixed model and 2294 piglet records, demonstrated that the incidence of pre-weaning mortality was significantly decreased with increasing individual piglet birth weight and by inclusion of salmon oil in the diet; the incidence of mortality increased with average piglet birth weight in a litter. Salmon oil inclusion had no effect on weight of litter weaned, sow lactation food intake or subsequent reproductive performance. In both studies, dietary salmon oil increased the proportions of long-chain n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids in colostrum to a similar extent. In the nutritional study, inclusion of salmon oil reduced the proportions of 20: 4 n-6 in piglet liver and brain at birth and increased the proportions of long-chain n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids. Therefore, despite reducing piglet birth weight, offering sows salmon oil reduced pre-weaning mortality of piglets. The nutritional study showed that the amount and type of marine oil used may not have been optimal.
The role of constituent order and level of embedding in cross-linguistic structural priming
Authors: JACOB GUNNAR , KATSIKA KALLIOPI , FAMILY NEILOUFAR , ALLEN SHANLEY E. M.
Published: August 2016

In two cross-linguistic priming experiments with native German speakers of L2 English, we investigated the role of constituent order and level of embedding in cross-linguistic structural priming. In both experiments, significant priming effects emerged only if prime and target were similar with regard to constituent order and also situated on the same level of embedding. We discuss our results on the basis of two current theoretical accounts of cross-linguistic priming, and conclude that neither an account based on combinatorial nodes nor an account assuming that constituent order is directly responsible for the priming effect can fully explain our data pattern. We suggest an account that explains cross-linguistic priming through a hierarchical tree representation. This representation is computed during processing of the prime, and can influence the formulation of a target sentence only when the structural features specified in it are grammatically correct in the target sentence.
Paper upon Marine Assurance. Presented to the Institute of Actuaries, May, 1852
Authors: Lance William
Published: August 2016

The interest which the Members of the Institute of Actuaries take in all matters relating to assurance, has induced me to present a few statements which exhibit the loss upon marine risks under certain classifications; and at the request of their valuable and talented secretary, I lay before them the data upon which tables for assuring the following benefits were constructed by me in the early part of last year for a projected company.
On the Values of Annuities, which are to pay certain given Rates of Interest on the Purchase Money during the whole term of their continuance, and to replace their Original Values, on their expiration, at certain other given Rates
Authors: Hardy Peter
Published: August 2016

Notwithstanding the very large amount of leasehold property, which in the course of every year is bought and sold in this country, and notwithstanding the extensive transactions—of almost hourly occurrence—in the public market, in Government and other temporary Annuities, the subject of the rate of interest which any given purchase will yield the buyer is very imperfectly understood, even by those most deeply interested in the inquiry, unless they happen to be at the same time well versed in actuarial computations.
On the true Measure of the Probabilities of Survivorship between two Lives
Authors: Gray Peter
Published: August 2016

A good deal of misconception prevails, on the part of many interested in the science of life contingencies, in regard to the expressions usually assigned as the measures of the probabilities of the different orders of survivorship among two or more lives. It seems to be supposed that these expressions are little better than rude approximations, adopted from convenience or necessity, depending on no definite principles, and consequently giving results but little entitled to confidence.
On the Determination of the Rate of Interest of an Annuity
Authors: De Morgan A.
Published: August 2016

This subject, as it left the hands of Simpson, Halley, Dodson, &c., is fully discussed in the appendices of Francis Baily's work on interest and annuities. These, with Milne's note on the subject (vol. ii., p. 680), Jones's notice of the problem, and the various modes of approximation announced in the pages of this Journal, give all I have found written about the matter in modern times. Referring to the citations in Baily for the history of the question subsequent to 1680, I give what I have found in previous time; and I add a few new formulæ for consideration. The problem is, I doubt not, of infrequent occurrence. It never occurred to myself to want more than a look at the tables would furnish; but it may be suspected that, as the requirements of business become closer, inverse problems will acquire more importance than they now possess.
On a Test for Ascertaining whether an Observed Degree of Uniformity, or the Reverse, in Tables of Statistics is to be looked upon as Remarkable
Authors: Campbell Robert
Published: August 2016

The following problem was suggested by certain remarks in Mr. Buckle's introductory chapter to his History of Civilisation. In that chapter Mr. Buckle remarks upon the striking uniformity usually exhibited by classes of phenomena—such as not only births, deaths, marriages, but such things as those apparently depending upon mere caprice—such as the number of letters annually sent without directions through the Post-office, or those which appear likely to depend on the most capricious and irregular causes, such as murders and suicides; and he proceeds to draw certain moral conclusions from the fact of this uniformity, namely, the existence of certain moral laws, by which a section of the community, definite in number, is always impelled to such acts. But before entering upon a discussion of the legitimacy of such results, there appears to me always a previous question to be solved, namely, whether the observed degree of uniformity is remarkable or not. For supposing the observed uniformity to be not more than that which might be expected from events, the occurrence of which to individuals was conceived of as perfectly fortuitous, the whole argument would resolve itself into a pure metaphysical question, from which it would be hopeless to expect any practical issue.
On the Medical Estimate of Life for Life Assurance. (Continued from page 263.)
Authors: Ward Stephen H.
Published: August 2016

Having thus glanced at different occupations as elements in the medical estimate of life, it may not be out of place to introduce the following table by M. Lombard, exhibiting trades in relation to consumption. In 1,000 deaths in each of the different occupations noticed, the following proportions were furnished by this disease:—
The Life Assurance Companies of Germany; their Business and Position in the Year 1858
Authors: Hopf G.
Published: August 2016

Widows' Funds and Burial Societies have existed in Germany already for more than 200 years, and in very great numbers. There was no town of any importance that did not possess one or more establishments of that kind. The guilds (corporations) of artisans usually maintained such institutions for their members; seeking in them, at the same time, a tie of stronger combination, and uniting their corporate interests. The love of these institutions, and the endeavour to provide, by means of them, for those left behind, spread from the guilds of artisans to the other classes of the people, in consequence of which, many hundreds, even thousands, of those little Burial Societies and Funeral Funds are to be found in Germany, from which, at the death of a member, a certain sum of money is paid to the survivors, to defray the expenses of interment, and to provide for the family immediately after the death of the subscriber. An extensive use was also made at all times of these establishments by such classes of people as were not so wealthy, because even the poorest are ambitious to take measures that they may have after their death a decent burial furnished at a fixed expense. This motive induces many, and particularly women, to subscribe to a Funeral Fund in Germany.
On the Rates of Interest for the use of Money in Ancient and Modern Times (Part IV)
Authors: Hodge William Barwick
Published: August 2016

In the former papers upon this subject1 which I had the honour to lay before the Institute, I described the vehement controversy carried on in earlier ages as to the propriety of allowing any interest to be taken for the use of money, and I alluded to the discussion which, after interest to a limited extent had been allowed by law, arose as to the advantages to be derived from a reduction of the legal rate.
On some Considerations suggested by the Annual Reports of the Registrar-General, being an Inquiry into the Question as to how far the Inordinate Mortality in this Country, exhibited by those Reports is controllable by Human Agency (Part II)
Authors: Porter H. W.
Published: August 2016

With respect to the inhalation of woolly matter, Mr. Leigh, a surgeon at Manchester, and Registrar of Deaths for the Deans-gate sub-district of that city, in which cotton-mills are so numerous, states, in one of his Reports to the Registrar-General, that in certain trades in Manchester almost every member above 40 is affected with emphysema of the lungs; and that persons who work in dust—as fustian-cutters, cotton-carders, and the like—are almost all affected with it, after working at their occupations for a few years.
On the Stability of Results based upon Average Calculations, considered with reference to the Number of Transactions embraced
Authors: Campbell Robert
Published: August 2016

An article published in this Journal last January (vol. viii., p. 316), proposed itself the problem of furnishing a test whether the degree of uniformity, or the reverse, observed in a table of statistics, required to be assigned to any other cause than the relative magnitude of the numbers of combinations which each figure in the table represented. The formulæ obtained in that article gave a general solution to the problem proposed, by giving an expression for the ratios of the numbers of such combinations which would be embraced under any figure in the table; and, consequently, expressing the relative frequency with which each number should be expected to occur from the mere consideration of counting the combinations represented by it.
On the Value of Mr. Gompertz's Formula for the Number Living in Terms of the Mortality according to Age, compared with the Value of a similar Formula published in 1832
Authors: Edmonds T. R.
Published: August 2016

In the Assurance Magazine (Oct., 1860, and July, 1861) there have appeared two papers written by me to show in what respect the law of human mortality described by Mr. Gompertz in 1825 differs from the law described by me in 1832. In the same papers I have also shown in what respect the formula of Mr. Gompertz, , for the number living in terms of the mortality according to age, differs from my formula for the same purpose, which is , on putting instead of , as assumed by Mr. Gompertz.
On the Principles on which the Funds of Life Assurance Societies should be Invested
Authors: Bailey Arthur Hutcheson
Published: August 2016

Of the many valuable contributions by which the transactions of this Institute have been enriched by the labours of Mr. Samuel Brown, not the least interesting is the paper on the investments of Assurance Companies, read before the Institute on the 25th January, 1858. I feel much diffidence in again reverting to this question; but as Mr. Brown, at the outset of his paper, admits that the subject is too extensive to be exhausted by a single discussion, it has occurred to me that an attempt to arrive at some general principles on which the funds of Life Assurance Societies should be invested, and to consider how such principles can best be reduced to practice, might, perhaps, be the means of exciting some useful discussion.
On the Construction and Use of Commutation Tables for Calculating the Values of Benefits depending on Life Contingencies
Authors: Gray Peter
Published: August 2016

To find the value of a life annuity on (x), of which the first payment is to be £1; the second, £2; the third, £3; and so on, increasing annually, by the amount of the first payment, to the end of life.
On the Construction and Use of Commutation Tables for Calculating the Values of Benefits depending on Life Contingencies (Concluded from page 108)
Authors: Gray Peter
Published: August 2016

We have now to give some examples of compound benefits, which are those consisting of two or more simple benefits; but the combinations which may be formed of these being obviously very numerous, it would be beside our present purpose to attempt giving a complete list of them. Our object will be, in selecting a few of them for illustration, to indicate the method of dealing with the more complicated cases, and also to prepare the way for the most general application of the Commutation Tables, which application will form the subject of the concluding portion of this paper. A very complete list of the formulae for the more elementary of these benefits is contained in Professor De Morgan's first paper on the subject; and as it is hoped that little difficulty will be experienced with these, after the illustrations to which our space limits us, we shall not scruple, as we have occasion, in the solution of any of the problems with which the present paper will be occupied, to refer to any of the learned gentleman's formulæ which we may not have deduced for ourselves. Our references will be made in the following manner, which is rendered necessary in consequence of the formulae not forming one consecutive series. Formula 10, on page 16, for example, will be denoted thus, [16,10]; formula 72, on page 18, thus, [18, 72]; and so on.
On Interpolation, Summation and the Adjustment of Numerical Tables. (Part III)
Authors: Woolhouse W. S. B.
Published: August 2016

When a series of quantities which depend on a fixed law, whether known or implied, follow each other in a due order of succession, the general accuracy of their numerical values may be satisfactorily tested by observing the regularity of the progression of a suitable order of differences. If the tabular quantities are the results of calculation from a given formula, with equidistant arguments, by differencing them up to a certain order the existence of an isolated error, if one should exist, is thus prominently exhibited and therefore speedily detected. Moreover the precise locality of the error and the fact of its individuality being indicated by a characteristic interruption of the law of progression, the proper correction is ascertained by carefully noting the central position of the disturbance, and revising the corresponding portion of the original computation. This work of revision may, however, be dispensed with, if necessary or desirable, as the magnitude as well as the locality of the indicated error can in general be readily deduced, with sufficient accuracy, directly from the differences, by the method of adjustment here given. The method, being so far independent of fundamental origin, is therefore equally applicable to the adjustment of a series of quantities derived from observation, or from statistical data; only in this latter case, as almost every quantity must be more or less affected by imperfections arising from defective information and other known or unknown incidental causes, the influence of which may sometimes be augmented by paucity of numbers, the progression of the differences is disturbed by a more complicated combination of the effects of an irregular series of errors, and it becomes more difficult to eliminate the value of each separate correction.
Something More About De Moivre's Formula
Authors: Gray P.
Published: August 2016

Mr. Baron Maseres, in the preface to his cumbrous work on the Principles of the Doctrine of Life Annuities (1783, quarto), at p. xi., after referring to and commending for its utility the method for finding the value of an annuity on (x) in terms of that of an annuity on (x + 1), has the following:—

“This method was first communicated to me by Dr. Price, but it was published in the year 1779, by Mr. William Morgan, the actuary to the Society for Equitable Assurances, near Blackfriars Bridge, in his Treatise on the Doctrine of Annuities and Assurances on Lives, pp. 56, 57; and it had been published before by Dr Price himself, in his Treatise on Reversionary Payments, Note 0 of the Appendix, and likewise by Mr. Thomas Simpson, in his book on Life Annuities, Prob. 1, Coroll. 7; which last book was published so long ago as the year 1742.
On a method of distributing the surplus among the assured in a life assurance office
Authors: Sprague T. B.
Published: August 2016

Suppose that the portion of surplus allotted to a particular policy at the division of profits, is applied so as to relieve the assured from the annual payments after arriving at an age to he determined by the amount of that portion or cash bonus, the other conditions of the policy remaining the same; or again, suppose that the cash bonus is so applied as to convert the assurance into an endowment assurance, payable at an age to be determined:–it is proposed to investigate formulæ to apply to these two cases.

In the first case, the cash bonus must be equal to the present value at the time of division of profits of a deferred annuity, of which the annual payments are equal to the premium for the assurance, the number of years for which the annuity is deferred being unknown; and the problem, in fact, is to find the number of years.
A Formula for expressing the Decrement of Human Life
Authors: Young Thomas
Published: August 2016

The investigation of the laws by which the general mortality of the human species appears to be governed is of equal importance to the statesman, the physician, the natural philosopher, and the mathematician; and as you have had occasion to pay particular attention to the subject, I trust that it will not be disagreeable to you to receive the results of an inquiry, into which I have entered, for the purpose of appreciating, if not of reconciling, the many discordant opinions that have been advanced respecting the comparative mortality of mankind, at different times and under different circumstances.
Report of the proceedings at the Statistical Congress held at Brussels, 19th to 22nd September 1853
Authors: Brown Samuel
Published: August 2016

The study of statistics is so peculiarly connected with the vocation and intellectual pursuits of the actuary, that I feel convinced there is no member of the Institute who will not be interested in a full report of the very important meeting recently held at Brussels. I apprehend that the real business of the actuary is the reasoning on all events to which the mathematics of probability can be applied, and reducing the conclusions to a form in which they can be practically used for the public benefit. His study is the doctrine of averages; and though his functions have been hitherto confined in a great measure to subjects relating to the assurance of human life, there are evidently many other topics to which, in time, his attention ought to be directed. The discovery of the mathematical laws of events will eventually be recognized as the sole means of bringing uncertainty to certainty, and out of irregularity deducing order.
Decimal Numeration and Decimal Coinage
Authors: Thomson William Thomas
Published: August 2016

The Report of the Select Committee of the House of Commons on the subject of “Decimal Coinage,” of 1st August 1853, sets entirely at rest any doubt or question as to the great advantages and facilities which would be afforded by the adoption of a system of decimal numeration and decimal coinage.

That the change will accordingly be made, I feel confident; and as the basis of the new arrangement, as well as the method of carrying it out, are of vast importance to the public at large, and in business generally, I have considered it a fit subject of deliberation for this Institute. It may be said that we should have taken an earlier and more prominent part in originating and promoting a change of system, of the importance of which we had individually, I may safely assume, been long convinced; but I am inclined to think that we have wisely reserved our opinions, and that they will be more valuable in the present stage of the discussion (now that the Report of the Select Committee, and the evidence taken before them, has been published), than they would have been earlier in the day.
A Formula for Expressing the Decrement of Human Life (Continued from p. 353, Vol. VI)
Authors: Young Thomas
Published: August 2016

Another mode of easily appreciating the regularity and the analogies of different tables is, to construct a diagram, in the form of a curve, of which the absciss represents the age, and the ordinates the corresponding decrements of life (see opposite). The inspection of such a diagram is sufficient to convince us of the great irregularity of the Carlisle Tables of Mortality, which must obviously have been formed, as they confessedly were, from observations on a very limited number of individuals, so that they exhibit a succession of different climacterics, after which the mortality is diminished; while about the age of 74 the curve that represents them towers to an incredible height, affording an expectation of longevity which some of the strongest advocates of those tables have abandoned in their practical applications, since they take their estimate of life, in advanced age, even lower than it is represented in the Northampton Tables.
On the Expectation of Life
Authors: Willich Charles M.
Published: August 2016

No law has hitherto been discovered, by which a correct table of mortality could be constructed, but attempts have been made by De Moivre and others to obtain an approximation.

If, in conformity with the opinion now generally entertained, and in which I concur, we adopt the Carlisle Table of Mortality, as formed by Milne from the observations made by Dr. Heysham, as a nearer approximation to the actual duration of human life than any other table of mortality hitherto in use, it is remarkable that the following simple hypothesis should enable us to obtain the expectation of life almost identical with Milne's table for a long series of years up to the age of 60.
On the Investments of the Funds of Assurance Companies
Authors: Brown Samuel
Published: August 2016

In bringing before the members of the Institute of Actuaries a question so important to the prosperity of Assurance Companies as the investment of the funds, they will be prepared to admit that it is one which could not be fully treated within the limits usually allowed for a paper for discussion at the sessional meetings. All that I could hope for is, to throw out a few hints such as experience or reflection may suggest to me, and trust to elicit, from the practical knowledge and abilities of those present, the materials for a fuller debate of the subject.
On the Principles which should govern Assurance Companies in Amalgamating
Authors: Jellicoe Charles
Published: August 2016

The subject which I am about to bring under the notice of the members of the Institute is one as to which a good deal of misapprehension exists. An impression, I believe, very commonly prevails, that combinations of the nature in question are little better than rude and arbitrary arrangements, in which the rights of the several parties concerned are not much regarded, and which are usually carried out by sacrificing more or less the interests of one class to those of another. I propose now to show that such is by no means the case—that these arrangements are susceptible of the nicest and most accurate adjustment—that the advantages derived from them are appreciable with great exactness—and that the rights of all concerned may be most scrupulously maintained. It is true that, the details being somewhat complicated, persons unfamiliar with such subjects are not very well able to satisfy themselves of this; but the fact is so, nevertheless, as we will now endeavour to demonstrate.
On the terms upon which the business of one insurance company may be equitably transferred to another
Authors: Sprague T. B.
Published: August 2016

In treating of the above subject, it cannot be expected that any new principles will be put forward, or that any great amount of novelty will be found in the method of handling the question. All that I have aimed at is, to apply acknowledged principles to the discussion of a question of considerable practical interest at all times, and more peculiarly so at the present time.
On certain Methods proposed for the Valuation of the Liabilities of a Life Assurance Company
Authors: Sprague Thomas Bond
Published: August 2016

The most important practical question arising in an actuary's practice is the following—“By what table of mortality, and according to what process, should the liabilities of a Life Assurance Company be estimated ?” Very wide differences of opinion appear to exist as to the proper answer to be given to this question. Thus, in the Assurance Magazine for January last, are contained two papers, written respectively by Mr. Jellicoe and Mr. Tucker, which bear more or less upon this subject ; and in which very conflicting opinions are expressed by those experienced actuaries.
On the Equitable Distribution of Surplus
Authors: Homans Sheppard
Published: August 2016

Having read with much pleasure and profit the several articles upon this subject, chiefly in the Assurance Magazine, from such able contributors as Messrs. De Morgan, Jellicoe, Brown, Sprague, Pattison and others, whose names are known and honoured on this side the Atlantic as well as at home, I have thought that, in return, a brief account of the method adopted in the recent distribution of the surplus of our largest American Life Company might be acceptable to the members of the Institute of Actuaries.
Note on the Possibility of the Division of the Law of Mortality into Geometrical Series
Authors: Woolhouse W. S. B.
Published: August 2016

If the series of the numbers living which constitute the law of mortality could be approximately derived, by collecting together the corresponding terms of a limited number of geometrical progressions, it is evident that the mathematical formula involving any combination of life contingencies and of the interest of money would expand into a certain number of geometrical series, the summation of each of which might be easily expressed. Such a result, as a general principle, would not appear to be attainable, so far as can be judged by an example I have been induced to test with the Carlisle table.
A Budget of Paradoxes (Continued from page 195)
Authors: De Morgan A.
Published: August 2016

According to Mr. Locke, the circumference is three diameters, three-fourths the difference of the diameter and the side of the inscribed equilateral triangle, and three-fourths the difference between seven-eighths of the diameter and the side of the same triangle. This gives, he says, 3·18897. There is an addition to this tract, being an appendix to a book on the longitude.
On the Relation which should obtain between the Amount assured upon Lives and the Sum reserved at the Expiration of Given Terms to meet it
Authors: Jellicoe Chas
Published: August 2016

The method of valuation once so universal—viz., that by means of tables of annuities involving the rates of premium charged—is now, I believe, admitted on all hands to be erroneous, and is, so far as I can learn, pretty generally abandoned. I have on more than one occasion endeavoured to demonstrate the fallaciousness of that method, and it is therefore needless again to draw attention to the peculiar consequences resulting from it; more especially as the great majority of the Companies now estimate their liabilities, as most actuaries agree that they should do, with the aid of tables based upon rates of interest and mortality approximating as closely as possible to those which observation and experience have shown to be the actually prevailing ones.
On a Method of substituting Francs and Centimes for the present English Metallic Currency
Authors: Yates James
Published: August 2016

Having for some years been an advocate for the abolition of the measures, weights, and coins, now used in Great Britain, and the adoption in their stead of thesystème métrique, employed throughout a great part of the Continent, I have had occasion to consider the various difficulties which present themselves in the prosecution of this object.
On the Analogy existing between the aggregate Effects of the Operations of the Human Will and the Results commonly attributed to Chance
Authors: Guy William A.
Published: August 2016

I have not found it easy to select a proper title for this paper; and I am very conscious of the difficulty of explaining my reasons for instituting the somewhat laborious experiments of which I am now to state the results. Perhaps, indeed, I ought to apologize for offering to the Institute of Actuaries a communication which some of its members, who are conversant with the leading treatises on the doctrine of probabilities, may know to have been anticipated and rendered unnecessary by the labours of men much better qualified than I can pretend to be, to do justice to so profound a subject. I have some reason, however, to believe that the experiments I am about to describe are new; inasmuch as, though I have consulted one or two works which are likely to have contained some reference to such experiments, had they been already made, and have questioned more than one eminent member of your Society upon the subject, I have not been able to learn that any such experiments are upon record.
A Budget of Paradoxes (Continued from p. 301, vol. xii)
Authors: De Morgan A.
Published: August 2016

Referring to the hoax about Mr. Goulburn in No. XIV., Messrs. C. H. and Thompson Cooper have corrected an error, by stating that the election which gave rise to the hoax was that in which Messrs. Goulburn and Yates Peel defeated Lord Palinerston and Mr. Cavendish. They add that Mr. Gunning, the well-known Esquire Bedell of the University, attributed the hoax to the late Rev. R. Sheepshanks, to whom, they state, are also attributed certain clever fictitious biographies—of public men, as I understand it—which were palmed upon the editor of the Cambridge Chronicle, who never suspected their genuineness to the day of his death. Being in most confidential intercourse with Mr. Sheepshanks, both at the time and all the rest of his life (twenty-five years), and never having heard him allude to any such things—which were not in his line, though he had satirical power of quite another kind—I feel satisfied he had nothing to do with them. I may add that others, his nearest friends, and also members of his family, never heard him allude to these hoaxes as their author, and disbelieve his authorship as much as I do myself. I say this not as imputing any blame to the true author, such hoaxes being fair election jokes in all time, but merely to put the saddle off the wrong horse, and to give one more instance of the insecurity of imputed authorship. Had Mr. Sheepshanks ever told me that he had perpetrated the hoax, I should have had no hesitation in giving it to him. I consider all clever election squibs, free from bitterness and personal imputation, as giving the multitude good channels for the vent of feelings which but for them would certainly find bad ones.
On Annuities and Assurances on Successive Lives
Authors: Weddle Thomas
Published: August 2016

Milne, in his Treatise on Annuities, chapter vii., has discussed this subject with much clearness and elegance; yet his method of investigation does not seem to be the best possible, nor do I think that his results are given in forms well adapted to numerical applications. It may therefore be not altogether useless to consider the subject in a somewhat different manner, and so to exhibit the formulas as best to meet the wants of the computer.
On Interpolation; an Essay containing a simple Exposition of the Theory in its most useful and practical applications, together with a general and complete Demonstration of the Methods of Quintisection of Briggs and Mouton for equal intervals; and of the process explained by Newton in his “Principia,” for intervals of any magnitude whatever
Authors: Maurice M. Fréd
Published: August 2016

The calculation of extensive tables of logarithms could not fail to give rise to the method of interpolation; and such indeed was its origin. After Napier had made his memorable discovery, and he and Briggs had recognized the advantages that would result from the adoption of 10 as the base of a system of logarithms, it was Briggs who courageously undertook the immense labour required for calculating those famous tables, published in London in 1624, which have not been surpassed in extent and accuracy by any subsequent work. It is well known, however, that Briggs left a great hiatus in those tables, and that the logarithms of numbers between 20,000 and 90,000 are not to be found in them; but scarcely were the first tables printed, when Briggs undertook with fresh energy the computation of the Logarithms of the Trigonometrical Lines, and he was on the point of terminating this vast enterprise when arrested by death. It was his friend Gellibrand who completed the work, and gave it to the world in 1633.
Brigg's Method of Interpolation; being a translation of the 13th Chapter and part of the 12th of the Preface to the “Arithmetica Logarithmica”
Authors: Williams J. Hill
Published: August 2016

Those of our readers who have studied the paper of M. Maurice on Interpolation, of which a translation appeared in our last number, will no doubt be glad to compare with it Briggs's own description of his method of Interpolation. His original work however appears to be very scarce; and the chapters in which he describes his method—the 12th and 13th—are omitted, even in the Edition published by Vlacq in Briggs's lifetime. We believe, therefore, that this translation by Mr. Williams of those parts of Briggs's Preface in which he describes his method of Interpolation, will prove very acceptable to our readers.—ED. J. I. A.
Fourier's Statistical Tables
Authors: De Morgan A.
Published: August 2016

It is stated in the notes to Cousin's éloge, and has been repeated, that Fourier was placed at the head of a bureau de statistique by the prefect of the Seine, the Comte de Chabrol. But there is hardly any authentication. Anything done in the subject by Joseph Fourier, the most powerful working member of the Egyptian commission, the originator of mathematical results of the first order of genius, novelty, and utility, and an experienced public man, must be worthy of attention. But so little is his statistical career known, that the Biographie Universelle (Michaud, 1856) only ventures its mention of the connexion of Fourier with the volumes presently described as suivant plusieurs personnes bien instruits.
On the arrangement of Commutation or D and N Tables
Authors: Chisholm James
Published: August 2016

There has been no more valuable improvement in the science of Assurance calculations than that effected by the invention of the Commutation or D and N System of calculation;—a method which, as is now universally known through the writings of Baily, Professor De Morgan and Mr. Gray, we owe, in this country, to the genius of Mr. George Barrett, of Petworth, Sussex. It appeared at first in an incomplete and rather inconvenient form, but various important modifications and extensions of the principle of the method were some time afterwards made; and it was practically applied to the calculation of Life Contingencies by the late eminent actuary Mr. Griffith Davies, with whose name it is now generally associated.
On the Valuation of Reversionary Life Interests
Authors: Sprague Thomas Bond
Published: August 2016

The valuation of reversions, absolute and contingent, is a matter of great and growing importance. The greater part of the landed property in the United Kingdom being settled in strict entail, proposals are being constantly made by the expectant heirs for loans upon their reversionary estates; and so long as the present law and practice of settlement prevail, so long will the making advances on the security of reversionary interests in landed property continue to be an important part of the business of such Life Insurance Companies as are wise enough to cultivate it. Although the amount of the landed property in the country remains unaltered, yet the rentals are steadily increasing, and consequently the amount of the money which can be employed in the way above described may also be expected to increase. Again, the vast and rapid increase of wealth among the middle classes of the country has led to a great increase in the number of life interests and reversions under marriage settlements and wills; and in consequence of the many vicissitudes in trade, such reversionary interests in personal property are constantly offered for sale in increasing numbers. There is also, perhaps, a growing disposition, when the owners of reversionary interests in either real or personal estate become involved, to press their interests for public sale, instead of arranging privately a sale to some member of the family. On the other hand, as it is becoming better known how ready Offices of good standing are to make advances on contingent reversionary interests, applications are now made to them, which would formerly have been made to private money lenders, whose charges were, to say the least, excessive. From these combined causes, the number of reversions in the market is increasing, and seems likely to increase.
German Life Assurance Institute
Authors: Williams J. Hill
Published: August 2016

In the number of the Journal for April, 1868, Herr Wilhelm Lazarus, of Hamburg, reported the recent establishment in Berlin of a German Life Assurance Institute, a society having generally the same object as the Institute of Actuaries. As the proceedings of such an association cannot fail to interest the members of the Institute of Actuaries and the readers of its Journal, we purpose laying before them some of the more interesting papers read before the German Institute; and as a fit introduction to these we now give the following translation of the laws of that Society, for which we are indebted to Mr. J. Hill Williams.—ED. J. I. A.
American Tables of Mortality
Authors: McCay C. F.
Published: August 2016

When our mutual life companies began their business in 1843, they had no American table of mortality to guide them in determining the premiums of insurance that ought to be charged at the different periods of life. There were no American statistics public or private, good, bad, or indifferent, to which they could refer, except the mortuary reports of cities, and these were so imperfect and unreliable as to be utterly useless, except to encourage the opinion that the chances of long life were about the same here as in the countries from which our people had emigrated. It was known that the numbers of the dying, as reported by our city registers, were below the real deaths; that the ages were full of errors; that the boundaries of the mortuary limits were constantly changing; that residents of the city were often buried in the country, and sometimes country people were interred in town; that the population was fluctuating; that the immigration from the rural districts and from foreign countries was large and irregular; that the census of the population, whether taken by the United States, or by the states, or by the cities themselves, was full of errors; that the ages of the living, both among males and females, were wrongly reported, sometimes intentionally, but always carelessly and thoughtlessly; and that these errors in the numbers and ages of the people and of the deaths were so numerous that no confidence could be placed in the ratio of the living and the dying at any particular age, while this ratio at all ages is an indispensable element in determining the proper premiums to be charged in any of the contracts made by our life companies.