11 20 Method of Arranging the Facts
The Mortality Experience of Life Assurance Companies © 1912
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1-4;
II. METHOD OF ARRANGING AND CLASSIFYING THE FACTS:’
When the cards had all arrived, the first process was to sort /
them into the following divisions : ‘
1. Healthy livesmale.
2. Healthy livesfemale.
3. Diseased livesmale and female. ;
4. Lives exposed to extra risks from climate, occupation, &c. ;
As regards persons exposed to extra risk in consequence of resi-
dence in a tropical climate, or military or seafaring service, the
general rule was to include in this class all who were at any time,
whilst the policies were in force, charged an extra premium. But,
inasmuch as formerly extra premiums were charged for many places,
such as Canada, for which no extra premium is now required, it was
agreed to disregard all such extra premiums, and to include in this
class only those cases in which the place, for which an extra
premium was charged, is situated within 33 degrees of the equator.
. In the cases where the extra risk did not commence until some
time after the date of the policy, the effect of following the above
rule would be to include in this class a certain number of years
of life, to which no deaths whatever correspond, and to withdraw
the same number from the ordinary observations; thus reducing
improperly the rate of mortality in this class, and increasing it in
the observations of ordinary risks. In order to obviate this, as
far as possible, it was decided that when the date of the commence-
ment of the extra risk was stated on the card, the life was included
up to that date in the ordinary risk observations, and omitted
entirely from the extra risk class. It is, however, believed that
the possible error from this course is extremely small, as in the
great majority of cases the extra risk commenced almost immedi-
ately from the date of the policy, and the average time which
elapsed between the date of the policy and the commencement of
the extra risk is extremely small. From an examination of the
cards furnished by two Offices it was found that in the one instance,
where 227 persons had been exposed to extra risk, in. the case of
133 the extra risk commenced from the date of the insurance, and
the remaining 94 had been under observation for 505 years in all,
or on the average for 5^- years each, before the extra risk com-
menced ; so that on the average of all. the cases there was an
interval of 2^ years between the date of the insurance and the
commencement of the:extra risk. In the second, instance, where
