No mortality curve appears yet to have been devised which both fits the national statistics at all ages, and also has a simple philosophical explanation. The object of this paper may be stated as being the building up of a new mortality curve from its component parts, as many as possible of these parts having a philosophical background, and the whole being applicable to the national data.

In a paper on Large-scale Electronic Digital Computing Machines read before the Institute in 1953 (J.I.A. 79, 274) R. L. Michaelson drew the attention of actuaries to the possibilities which existed in a life office for the use of a large-scale electronic digital computer (referred to hereafter as a ‘computer’). Both the paper itself and the discussion which followed emphasized the need for a detailed investigation of the problems involved from the points of view of the life office and the manufacturer.

2. The author of this paper has been privileged to undertake, in close cooperation with a large manufacturer of computers in this country, a detailed investigation of possible life-office organization based on a computer. This paper sets down some of the results of this investigation with particular reference to life offices transacting ordinary as distinct from industrial life assurance.

Some combinations of ideas seem strange and unfamiliar. Life assurances with participation in profits—what could be more natural? But annuities with participation in profits?—the association of such discrepant ideas gives rise to all manner of objections in our minds.

…the solutions given…are so various as to excite no little surprise and distrust in the minds of those unacquainted with the subject, under whose notice such solutions are brought.

…a great deal of judgment and discretion must always be required from the actuary, and…it is not possible to lay down any general rule which shall altogether obviate such requirement.

The quotations above are taken from a paper by Jellicoe (J.I.A.6, 61) which was discussed by this Institute in 1855. It is a salutary thought that there are no subsequent statements recorded in J.I.A. on the subject which seem to express so succinctly the two principal points which should always be borne in mind when the apportionment of a trust fund is under consideration. It must be stated immediately, however, that since 1855 problems of apportionment have been discussed only in 1871 (J.I.A.16, 269), 1873 (J.I.A.18, 77) and 1925 (J.I.A.56, 243); indeed, reversions and life interests have scarcely been mentioned in Institute discussions since 1935, when O. I'A. Thurston presented his paper on Death Duties (J.I.A.66, 369).