Some years ago I had the privilege of reading a paper on Contingent Reversions, &c., before this Institute, and the proposals I then made for the treatment of the premiums on the insurances to be set up in connection with reversionary transactions were received with general condemnation, nor have they since, so far as I know, met with any practical support, although I have seen no reason to alter my opinion of the soundness and practicability of the views I then put forward. I am not afraid on this occasion of meeting with like opposition, as the methods I am now going to deal with have been carried into practice already by the Society with which I am connected, and by way of reassurance, if not otherwise, have examples on the books of many of the life offices, both in England and Scotland.

The publication of the Sickness and Mortality Experience of Registered Friendly Societies, the work of our late distinguished member, Mr. W. Sutton, has directed the serious attention of the Manchester Unity of Oddfellows to the question of the continued reliability of the Tables on which the Society has been accustomed to base its financial estimates, and as the result of the interest thus awakened, the Actuaries of the Order have been instructed to make a complete investigation of its experience during the five years 1893–97. From the immensity of the data to be handled in this investigation (these being contributed by about 3,500 branches and comprising, inter alia, some three million years of life and 40,000 deaths) it has been necessary, at the outset, to closely consider the methods of tabulation and classification to be adopted, and preliminary experiments on a somewhat elaborate scale have accordingly been required. The results of these experiments appear to possess a definite value in relation to the subject of friendly society experience, and I am emboldened on this account to offer the following notes respecting them for the consideration of this meeting.