On the Inadequacy of existing Data for determining the Rate of Mortality among Select Lives

Abstract

I. While so much improvement has recently taken place in the arrangement and construction of various tables for facilitating calculations founded on existing data, very little has been done in the way of investigating and correcting the data themselves; and it is feared that the question of the rate of mortality among select lives is still involved in the greatest doubt and obscurity. II. It is not proposed in the present paper to go farther than to show that the rate of mortality, during the first year of selection, of select assured lives is so materially different from what it has hitherto been represented, as to lead to the inference that the data from which the erroneous deduction has been made cannot be true data for the ascertainment of the value of selection. To investigate the rate of mortality of select lives at separate ages, I conceive to be of the utmost importance for the elucidation of truth, and the proper direction of sanatory inquiries; but I do not consider that sufficient data at present exist for the determination of this, and these can only be obtained by a united inquiry. I shall be very happy if the present observations have any effect in hastening such an investigation, which sooner or later must be entered upon.