bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The Scottish Kayaks and the ‘Finn-men’
Authors: Whitaker Ian 
Published: August 2016

Among the more obscure aspects of polar research the problem of the appearance off Scotland of kayaks of Eskimo type is one of the most formidable. A These craft, one of which has certainly survived, normally become waterlogged after about forty-eight hours in the water. How then were they brought to the British Isles, and by whom?Apparently the earliest reference to their appearance off the Scottish coast is that of the Rev. James Wallace, Minister of Kirkwall, Orkney, who wrote about 1688 in his Description of the Isles of Orkney:‘Sometime about this Country are seen these Men which are called Finnmen; In the year 1682 one was seen sometime sailing, sometime Rowing up and down in his little Boat at the south end of the Isle of Eda, most of the people of the Isle flocked to see him, and when they adventured to put out a Boat with men to see if they could apprehend him, he presently fled away most swiftly: And in the year 1684, another was seen from Westra, and for a while after they got few or no Fishes; for they have this Remark here, that these Finnmen drive away the fishes from the place to which they come.‘These Finnmen seem to be some of these people that dwell about the Fretum Davis [Davis Straits].… One of their Boats sent from Orkney to Edinburgh is to be seen in the Physitians hall, with the Oar and the Dart he makes use of for killing Fish’.
Air Reconnaissance in Northern France
Authors: St Joseph J. K. 
Published: August 2016

During the last two decades discoveries of buried features of archaeological and historical interest have been widespread in south-east England, on many different soils supporting varying vegetation, the gravel terraces of the principal rivers and the chalk country yielding most information. Not the least productive area is the Isle of Thanet, where such ground as is free from the spreading housing estates of coastal resorts displays, for example, groups of ring-ditches of Bronze Age barrows, enclosures of the Iron Age, Roman villae, and even practice-trenches of the 1914-18 war. If discoveries of such variety and number could be made in Thanet, what of the other side of the Channel, where extensive tracts of chalk country are crossed by valleys with wide plains of alluvial gravel? Occasional discoveries made by members of French flying-clubs, for example, by M. Roger Agache in the Somme valley, had by 1961 shown that ‘crop-marks’ were to be seen; indeed it would be very surprising if they were not.But to undertake abroad a programme of air photography involving widely ranging flights, planned for research, is not quite so simple a matter as in Britain. Maintenance requirements appropriate to aircraft operating abroad impose limitations on the work, while above all there is need to obtain permission for such photography from the responsible authorities. It was largely owing to the continued support of M. Seyrig and Professor Will that such permission was granted at all, and grateful thanks are due to them, to the Direction de l’Architecture of the French Ministry of State, under whose auspices the work was carried out, and to the British Academy, which made a grant towards the cost of the operation.
The Inclusion in Life Contracts of Sickness and Accident Benefits
Authors: Butt L. M. 
Published: August 2016

The subject of Disability and Sickness benefits in conjunction with Life Assurance is of recent growth. The only occasions when the Members of the Institute have had the matter before them appears to have been in 1911 when a paper was read by W. C. Fielder before this Society, and in 1924 when a discussion took place at one of the General Meetings of the Institute.The immense strides that have been made in America in the last five years, and the latent interest aroused in this country, as reflected by the amount which has been written in Insurance publications will, I hope, justify a discussion of the subject once more.It will not be out of place to quote the following from a recent number of The Review:“The attitude of British Actuaries on this question (Sickness and Disability benefits) is perhaps best described as one of neutrality. Were circumstances to force them to a decision for, or against, it would seem probable that many would be antagonistic. In the meantime, so long as they are not forced into open hostility they are prepared to ignore the business as much as possible. This is, of course, no more than an impression gathered from conversations here and there, and odds and ends of information that have come to hand from time to time. We imagine, however, that it comes fairly near to being an accurate statement of the case. If that be so then we can but regret it. The value of Disability Insurance to the public is so great, the amount of suffering it could eliminate so large that were Actuaries busily engaged in searching for the means of making it universally available the middle classes might look to the future with greater confidence.”
New Issues
Authors: Milnes H. L. 
Published: August 2016

The subject can perhaps be treated most effectively by following through the natural sequence of events, starting from the time at which some publicly constituted body of persons, such as a national government, municipal authority or company decides that it desires to borrow money.It must be explained that I have applied the term “Borrower” both to persons borrowing money by means of bonds and to those raising capital by means of shares.The first step is to get into touch with representatives of a financial “house” who, as specialists in such matters, will assist in the technical and other problems involved. This brings us automatically and immediately to the question of underwriting which may be denned as the process by which, for a consideration known as the underwriting commission, the requisite subscription to a new issue is guaranteed. It is the process by which the borrower virtually effects an insurance policy, under which the “insurers” or “underwriters” guarantee to subscribe for that part of the issue not applied for by the general public.
Selection of Lives
Authors: Heath E. A. J. 
Published: August 2016

In dealing with the selection of lives we leave the actuarial idea of selection and come down to the practical consideration of the individual. The actuarial student is accustomed to dealing with select lives and we want to find out how these lives are classified. In this practical sense there are two types of selection, medical and non-medical, the latter referring not to a non-medical scheme of assurance but to the points arising from the papers and circumstances of the case apart from the medical report.It is proposed to consider both these aspects and to show that the actuary can take his part in the selection just as much as the Principal Medical Officer. Some considerations need the actuary alone, others the P.M.O. alone, and the best results can only be obtained by whole-hearted co-operation between the two. No attempt is made to discuss extra risks, this being outside the scope of the paper, and we shall merely examine the various phases of the selection and outline points which the actuary must be ready to detect so that he can assist the P.M.O. as far as possible.
Notes on Extra Risks
Authors: Maltby C. H. 
Published: August 2016

The object of these notes is to give a brief introduction to the treatment of proposals for life assurance which are not acceptable at ordinary rates.In theory, the extra premium charged for a certain type of case should be based upon the abnormal mortality which is expected. Little, however, is known about the rates of mortality applicable to any class of extra risk, while in practice extra premiums involve a comparatively small amount of cash and cause much trouble, particularly to the outside staff. The imposition of extra premiums is therefore restricted as far as possible, and a tendency towards their virtual abolition would probably be much accentuated, but for fears that to do so might involve an undesirably large influx of second class business.
Bonus Reserve Valuations
Authors: Ogborn M. E. 
Published: August 2016

These notes assume the reader knows the general principles on which bonus reserve valuations are made.The essential idea is to value as a liability the amounts the office will be liable to pay as sum assured, bonus and expenses, setting of f as an asset the amounts the office will receive—the office premiums. The valuation must be based on really accurate estimates. We must use the mortality we think will prevail and the interest we think can be relied on in respect of existing business. Admittedly bonus is uncertain—a valuation of future bonus does not guarantee it—but the valuation must be as accurate as possible. The bonus allowed for will be realised if the conditions assumed prevail in future.The table of mortality is usually a standard table to which the experience of the office may be regarded as an approximation, but need not necessarily relate to the same class of life. The essential qualification of any table for use must be that it is a real approximation to the likely future experience of the office for which it is used.
The investigation of stocks and shares
Authors: Gough R. B. 
Published: August 2016

These notes deal mainly with that part of the investigation of securities which involves the study of company accounts.At the outset, it should be stressed that the figures of various companies are not computed on a common basis. In company accounts, as in an actuarial valuation, the same general principles can be modified to give varying results, with the important qualification that even the general basis does not have to be published. There is therefore plenty of scope for variations in accounting practice, and hard and fast conclusions cannot be drawn from figures alone. In this connexion, one cannot do better than quote the remarks made by Mr Arthur Chamberlain at a company meeting last year, when he said:I do not suppose there are many of my audience who are simple enough to believe that a company's accounts, particularly those of a holding company, set forth the actual and exact profits earned in each year.… I do not think it would be too cynical to say that the ordinary shareholder is lucky if he can read from the figures of a balance sheet more than an idea of the general tendency forward or backward, unless the directors are themselves aware of it and wish him to.… It is possible within the law to present a more or less truthful but entirely misleading position of affairs.In the present state of company law, therefore, it is of no use trying to produce complicated formulae or elaborate indices intended to indicate true share values at a glance.
Retrospect 1939–1945
Authors: Martin D. B. 
Published: August 2016

These notes are not intended to be a history of the Second World War. They are no more than a survey of the effect of that war on the financial institutions, namely, the Life Insurance Companies, with which British actuaries are particularly concerned. It is hoped that the survey will be of value to those members of the Students' Society who have been out of touch—through no fault of their own—with what has been happening in the field in which their peace-time activities mainly centre.The Companies operate under conditions of ‘Freedom with Publicity’ in furtherance of which there was published, pre-war, the yearly volume of Assurance Companies' Returns, which, with the summaries appended to it, offered a convenient source of facts and figures. The publication of the Returns ceased during the war years, the last figures available relating to the operations of the year 1937; for most purposes, therefore, 1937 has been used as the ‘pre-war basic year’.
Approximate redemption yields.
Authors: Hastie G. 
Published: August 2016

With the present high rates of income tax and low yields, redemption yields are frequently outside the range of bond value tables and even of the more accessible interest tables. The following approximate method of estimating yields has been found satisfactory in practice:For a bond bought at 1 +kpayinggper annum half-yearly redeemable innyears at I the yieldiconvertible half-yearly can be writtenwhereat rate ½i.Practical use of (i) depends upon the accuracy with which we estimateθ. Successive approximation will give a correct result, but the formula is not in a form when this method can be easily used. Successive approximation can be more easily effected by choosingθand then estimating the error.
The Practical Interest Shown in Institute Affairs by Fellows of the Institute of Actuaries. A Comparison of the Period 1920–39 with 1880–99
Authors: Fisher H. F. 
Published: August 2016

The opinion is expressed sometimes that of recent years less interest has been taken by the profession generally in Sessional meetings of the Institute, and in the preparation of original contributions for theJournal. It is urged that actuarial subjects have been fully covered by earlier writers, and that in consequence a narrowing field for active interest exists.The object of this paper is to examine the statistics available and, if possible, to decide whether the views stated above are justified. For this purpose two main ‘yard-sticks’ will be used.
Valuation for Estate Duty purposes of an estate subject to an annuity.
Authors: Joseph A. W. 
Published: August 2016

A Few years ago two estate duty valuations were made in somewhat unusual circumstances.A bequeathed an annuity of £75 equally amongst his five daughters, expressed to be payable for their joint lives, the whole of the annuity being subject to remainder to the survivors or survivor for lives or life. The annuity was charged on a leasehold property which was bequeathed absolutely to B, the son of A, subject to the joint-life annuity.One of the daughters died, and for the purposes of estate duty it was necessary to know the present value of the proportion of annuity which passed on her death, i.e. the value of the annual sum of £15 payable until the last survivor of four lives aged respectively 81, 78, 77 and 71.
Mathematics and the actuary
Authors: Vajda S. 
Published: August 2016

The relation between actuarial and scientific matters has frequently been investigated and there are various ways of looking at their interconnexions. We can ask, among other questions, whether our activities as actuaries entitle us to consider ourselves to be scientists in any sense of the word. This is the context in which the question has been debated in the Students' Society (cf. ‘Are we Scientists?’ by W. G. Bailey &amp; H. W. Haycocks,J.S.S.Vol. VI, p. 93). The feeling on that occasion was that the answer must be in the negative, but even if our everyday activities are not strictly scientific it could still be claimed that there exists a set of correlated topics to be called ‘actuarial science’ which is at the actuary's disposal and which is kept alive by contributions of individual actuaries.German scholars have asserted the existence of a ‘Science of Assurance’ which, according to them, comprises and combines into an organic whole those portions of all other sciences which have some bearing on (not necessarily Life-) Assurance. We are, in this country, less prone to create abstract notions by definition, but even if we do not see any merit in ascribing a scientific status to our profession, we can ask whether there exist branches of science which have something to offer to us in our capacity as actuaries. It will be agreed that two sciences in the wider sense of the word are in some way connected with our work, viz. Economics and Mathematics. Our profession can claim historic connexions with both and members of our community have proved themselves competent in them. Should we encourage, and even extend, this connexion?
The nomographic estimation of the influence of substandard mortality on the policy value.
Authors: Wünsche G. 
Published: August 2016

In this article we are concerned with the problem of interpreting numerically the relative variations which the policy value based on a standard mortality table undergoes when this table is replaced by one which allows for 100T% extra mortality.This question is of particular interest from two points of view. First, it is of consequence for the technique of insurance of abnormal risks to obtain some idea of the numerical effect of percentage additions to the mortality on such important lifecontingency functions as surrender values. Further, in the treatment of this question as a typical approximation problem of lifecontingency mathematics, it appears that the solution most suited to the essence of the inquiry and for practical applications is obtained by a nomographic evaluation of the quantities under consideration. As regards the importance of nomography in the practical application of insurance mathematics the author has already made a thorough exposition and given examples in a series of earlier publications; in future, in life-contingency problems, the necessary consideration will always be given to the development of the appropriate nomographic methods, particularly in connexion with the introduction of typical approximate methods.
Initial expense allowances in a net premium valuation.
Authors: Musk A. S. 
Published: August 2016

The subject of making an allowance for initial expenses in a net premium valuation is one which has long interested actuaries, and it is usually associated with the name of Zillmer who first wrote an article on it in 1863. The following note, based on practical experience of valuing a young and rapidly growing life fund, may be of interest to students.
The normal method of making such an allowance is, in effect, to adjust the net premium used in the valuation by the equivalent of the initial expense allowance spread over the whole duration of the policy.
The effect on pension fund contributions of a change in the rate of interest
Authors: Bizley M. T. L. 
Published: August 2016

The object of this note is to suggest a method, believed by the writer to be new, whereby once a pension fund contribution has been calculated the revised contribution occasioned by a small change in the rate of interest can be approximately determined with great ease and rapidity.Let 100cxbe the percentage contribution for entry agexrequired to support a pension per annum equal to 100k% of pensionable salary for each year of service. Assume for simplicity that normal retirements and early retirements (if any) can together be sufficiently allowed for by the use of a single average retirement age (M).
Notes on points arising during the currency of transactions in reversions and life interests.
Authors: Benz N. 
Published: August 2016

The purpose of this paper is to indicate some of the points which arise during the currency of transactions in reversions and life interests; the selections of appropriate bases for mortality, interest, valuation of funds and estate duties do not fall within the scope of the paper. References to strictly legal aspects are no more than incidental.As in many other matters with which actuaries are concerned, mistakes (including errors of judgment) sometimes only become apparent many years after they were made. It follows, therefore, that no hard and fast distinctions can be drawn between the preliminaries necessary to a transaction and what comes after. For this reason I feel obliged to refer to my earlier paper entitled ‘Notes on transacting new business in reversions and life interests’ which appeared in thisJournal(10, 1); it is hoped, however, that the present paper will be found to be complete in itself.
Discount houses and the short-term money market.
Authors: Mills L. G. 
Published: August 2016

Since my own experience of the cycle of monetary operations I shall describe is concerned with banking, it would seem natural to commence by discussing the functions of a bank. There is no legal definition of a bank, but the term is generally understood to apply to an institution which accepts from depositors money withdrawable on demand, in practice generally by cheque. The cardinal point to bear in mind is that a bank is a trustee of other people's money which, apart from deposit accounts at 14 days' notice, is all repayable on demand. The fundamental consideration is that it iscustomers'money, apart, of course, from the comparatively small proportion of resources represented by shareholders' capital.A bank's first duty, therefore, is to its depositors (not to its borrowers!), and the exercise of that trust requires that any depositor shall be free to come to his bank and withdraw all or part of the funds he has entrusted to it. Hence liquidity is of prime importance and a bank must arrange its structure of assets so as to comply with this requirement. But like other commercial concerns a bank must have earning power to cover its outgoings, reward its shareholders and try to satisfy its staff! So, consistent with liquidity, a bank's ‘quick’ assets are arranged to bring in as large a return as possible subject to this overriding limitation.
Small private pension funds
Authors: Merriman P. E. 
Published: August 2016

An important factor in any actuarial problem is the number of lives likely to be involved. It is at first surprising therefore that so little attention is paid to the question of size in our pension fund literature, although a brief consideration of the historical development of pension funds gives some indication of the reason for this situation.Superannuation provisions were originally introduced for the benefit of employees of the Government in the Civil Service and the Armed Forces. The pensions were allowed to emerge as charges on current revenues and no attempt was made to fund the liabilities. Towards the turn of the last century superannuation provisions were introduced for teachers (consequent upon the Education Act, 1870) and railway staffs, and for the staffs of certain municipalities. The movement grew slowly, although several large firms began to make pension arrangements at this period, and among non-government employers there was a greater tendency to fund the liability for pensions.
Tax and estate duty problems in respect of policies on the lives of employees and directors
Authors: Jaggers C. L. 
Published: August 2016

These notes are an attempt to answer a question which is often asked and might at first sight appear to be a simple one, viz. ‘What is the tax and estate duty position where a company effects an assurance on the life of an employee (or director) and what would be the position were the man to take out the policy himself, the company providing the premiums?’ The first point to settle is— ‘What is the purpose of the policy?’—and then, related to that, ‘What class of assurance is intended?’ Besides the tax and estate duty aspects there is the question of the respective rights in the disposal of the policy proceeds which may in some cases over-ride the financial considerations.Where alternative procedures are available the relative financial effect can, in some instances, only be assessed by someone with an intimate knowledge of the accounts of the company and the affairs of the life to be assured. It is desirable in any case that the inquiries should be dealt with through the company's accountant. It might well be asked whether such matters are not entirely the province of the professional accountant. Whatever opinion may be held about this, the fact remains that life offices are to an increasing extent consulted on technical matters involving taxation and estate duty even by members of the legal and accountancy professions.