Some Medical Aspects of Life Assurance

Mr. President and Gentlemen,—I accepted with some misgiving the invitation with which your President honoured me to read a paper before your Society on some medical subject connected with Life Assurance, because I doubted my ability to deal with it in any way worthy of the audience. When I further reflected that some of those present might be the Managers and Actuaries and even the Chief Medical Officers of Companies for which I have examined in London, I sought a loophole for honourable escape. Now, when the eyes of some of these officials are upon me, I feel inclined to beat a dishonourable retreat.Many valuable contributions have been made to this subject, and subjects bearing upon it, of late years; and if I gave you an account of the bibliography alone, it would occupy the time at my disposal. The President probably thought that the study of this literature would be of educational advantage to me; and, if so, I can assure him that it has fulfilled the object he had in view.The title of Some Medical Aspects of Life Assurance seemed to be one which would enable me to escape the dangers of attempting to give you a statistical dissertation on my own experience, while it would admit of some general remarks on the method of Life Assurance examination.