In the year 1823 a plan was projected, by the late Dr. George Pinckard, for establishing an Assurance Office which should undertake, as its leading feature, to grant Policies on Lives deviating so much from the common standard of health as to render them wholly inadmissible at any Office then existing. In pursuance of this plan, the Clerical, Medical, and General Life Assurance Office was established early in 1824. In the absence of any trustworthy data which might serve as a guide, the projector considered that the object in view could be accomplished, with safety, only by the aid of more extended and diversified medical knowledge than was obtainable by Offices dependent on the unassisted judgment of one or two Medical Examiners. In forming the Board of Directors, therefore, he expressly provided, that of the 17 gentlemen of whom it was composed, 8 at least should be members of the Medical Profession.