The republic., 1851-10-28
Lie Asaurnnce.
Assurance of Diseased Liues-MsTeGHtiIs Uses Of
the System HINTS 10 AssurTs.

| PLY, only Snail pOTtlOn OF tne auull POPuld-
lon are included in this category, either on ac-
count of hereditary taint or acquired disease, or
on account Of near relationship TO those who
possess, or have possessed, one or the other
Many, knowing their position in this respect,
regard themselves beyond the pale of assur-
ance. and never trouble an office on the sub
ject. OF the persons who do apply for policies,
it has been computed that twenty per cent. are
rejected for want of perfect health. Hence
have originated societies which, In addition to
ordinary business, assure diseased lives at rates
specially calculated with reference to the NOR
tality prevailing in the class to which the assu-
rers belong. Mr.. NEIsoN, writing on this sub
ject ten years ago, affirmed that the mortality
amongst diseased persons may be ascertained
with even greater precision than that found
amongst healthy persons; and experience has
fully established the accuracy Of the opinion.
Pthisis, dropsy, hydrocephalus, and even the
infrequent cause of death, tetanus, have all
been tabulated, and show, on an average, re-
markably close approximation TO the actuarles'
calculation.
But though the number dying yearly from
these specific causes is known to an extent
and with an accuracy sufficient for the pur-
poses of assurance, it may be doubted whether
data exist for ascertaining how many cases
have ended in recovery, or how many there are
in whom disease supposed to be latent has
never been developed. These are points on
which medical statistics are imperfect; and 1t
is no doubt owing to this circumstance that as
surances OF diseased lives are effected only at
what appear to be exorbitant rates. 1t has
been alleged, with regard oguarantee or fideli-
ty assurance, that every assurer is treated as a
suspected person, and made to pay accordingly.
Probably with more truth may it be said that
an imperfect register of facts relating to disease
compels assurance societies to assume that all
cases of disease will terminate fatally, and to
secure their own funds by regulating the pre-
mums according to the worst possible con-
tingency.
The principle of life assurance may be ap-
piled practically to every transaction into which
the probable duration of individual existence en-
ters as an essential item. BY far the larger
proportion of policies now extant have been
taken up for purely commercial purposes. The
assurance by members of commercial firms of
their own trading capital, to obviate the incon-
venence that would follow the death of part
ner, affords species of indemnity plainly re-
quired wherever partnership capitals exist, be-
cause the surviving members of firm may in
this manner secure the enjoyment of funds ade
quate to the profitable continuance of their busi-
{ro ~ 1;ab ~,
which the sudden withdrawal of capital could
not fail to produce. Every competent actuary is
able to determine the degree of risk that exists,
and to calculate the money premium which rep
resents it; and no man should undertake the
management of an assurance agency who is
not competent to explain the manifold applica-
tion of the principle.
Into these mercantile applications of assur-
rance, il is not our intention now TO enter. They
depend for their value in particular cases on
circumstances which cannot with safety be
generalized, and which are, at any rate, subor-
dinate in importance to the point which we are
anxious specially to urge-namely, the duty of
heads of families and others to assure for the
benefit of those dependent on them, and the
beneficial influence which the fulfilment of this
duty will exercise on individual character and
social improvement.
How is it that, while fire assurance is COM
paratively the rule, life assurance is an ex-
ception? Is it that man, aware that his PROS
poets in life would be seriously affected by the
destruction. by fire, of his furniture or stock in
trade, perceives the benefit he may personally
receive from assurance, and accedes to the
terms on which it may be secured; while the
gain to be derived from life assurance is not OBJ
tainable by himself, and will only fall to the lot
of others when he has ceased to be interested
in their condition? But the prudence which
enables him to retrieve the damage sustained
by fire, calls upon him with tenfold force to
make provision for his family, from whom he
may at any moment be snatched. The loss of
property may be surmounted so long as he re-
tans the energy Of manhood; but it is not so
with the widow and the fatherless, who, bereft
Of their guardian and chief support, are plunged
into almost inextricable difficulties. No man
of right feeling can regard, without selfreproach
and dread, the bitterness of sorrow and pow
erty which only the tender thread of his
single life keeps from his now happy home.
No husband or parent, endowed with or
dinary affection, can, without trembling,
contemplate the probability, perhaps the GER
tainty, of destitution being experienced by
his family, in all its crushing reality, in the
event Of his death, which may at any period be
produced by one Of the many accidents which
beset humanity. Grant that to the huge mass
of every country, who find it difficult to satisfy
the pressing exigencies Of the hour, assurance
presents TO charms still its importance re-
mains unlessened, so far as it concerns all
whose means of living are of less precarious
nature,
A popular writer has said, strongly and tru-
y: "When life assurance is as universally
understood and practised as it ought to be, he
who has not made such a provision, or some
thing equivalent for the possibility of his death,
will, verify trust, be looked on as not less
detestable wretch than he who will not work