The primary object of this paper is to inquire into, and bring forward for discussion, those characteristics of the mortality of female lives which belong to their sex as a whole, in the belief that a proper understanding of those characteristics is essential to a correct interpretation of statistics derived from the special class represented by assured lives. To this end an attempt is made, in the earlier part of the paper, to compare the available statistics of assured lives with those of the general population, and some apology perhaps is needed for the space which it has been found necessary to devote to this part of the subject. This, however, is to a great extent unavoidable, and is partly due to the necessity of showing the figures for male lives side by side with those for females, thus involving generally a double set of figures in each table.

The word “amortisation” is now being used in insurance circles in America to represent the operation of a sinking fund, whereby bonds or other fixed term securities, bought at a premium or at a discount, will be brought down, or up, to the par value at the date when repayment is promised. The scientific basis of the method is so well known to actuaries and is so fully explained in such standard works as King's Theory of Finance and the Institute of Actuaries Text-Book, that there is no need for me to enter upon a discussion of the principles. But of late years the system has assumed great practical importance, and the general method, with the suitability of its application to our business, are subjects worthy of consideration and discussion.

When it is desired, in the case of a Pension Fund granting pensions based on salary, to calculate the value of the prospective pensions, it is necessary to frame a scale of average salaries at successive ages, so as to give the means of estimating what salaries the present contributing members of the Fund will on the average be receiving up to the time of retirement. The scale is also necessary for the purpose of calculating the values of future contributions and returns of contributions.

The annual valuation of liabilities independently of the interval between successive divisions of profit, an improvement in practice now general among Life Offices, may be attributed immediately to the altered distribution of assets, but is to be referred ultimately both to the persistent decline in the rate of interest during the twenty years previous to 1899, and to the steady increase in the funds of the companies, for the extended powers due to these joint influences led (for obvious reasons) to the investment of an increased proportion of the funds in Stock Exchange securities, and to a decrease in the proportions invested in ground rents and feu-duties or lent on direct mortgage.

The Life Tables which we have prepared and have now the honour of submitting to the Faculty, are based on the Male and Female Populations of Scotland as ascertained by the Census taken on 2nd April 1911, and on the average of the deaths registered in Scotland during the years 1910, 1911, and 1912.

In having used the censal population for the purpose of this study, and not a middle year estimate of the population, we lay ourselves open to some criticism, as a middle year estimate is more generally approved of for this purpose.