Some interesting statistics, based on the returns of 77 offices, and showing the sources from which profit is derived, are given by Mr. Archibald Hewat, in a paper read before the Actuarial Society of Edinburgh, entitled, Bonuses—how Earned and how Distributed, an abridged reprint of which appears in the Institute Journal, vol. xxii, pp. 286–292. Therein it is stated that £2,285,000 of hard cash is on the average annually divided among the policyholders by way of bonuses, such sum being made up from

These statistics afford a practical demonstration of the important bearing which interest—or, perhaps, more appropriately speaking, the surplus interest,—has on the profits earned. We see that no less than 45·50 per-cent of the profits of each year, or, if the profit on investments be included, that fully one-half of the surplus proceeds from this source; the remainder being principally contributed by the loading.