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17

and West Friesland, suggested a mortality table in a discussion of the sale of life annuities by the State as a means of raising money, in a state paper bearing date about 1671.

John Graunt, in a book published in 1662, gives a crude mortality table by decades from birth, instead of single years, deriwed from the baptismal and mortality records of the cite of London.

In a contribution to the Philosophical Societe, in 1693, Edmund Halley published a complete mortality table, drawn from the mortality records of the city of Breslau, Germany. This table was based on the deaths only, and it was assumed that the population was stationary, the births and deaths counterbalancing one another.

In 1762 the Equitable Society- for the Assurance of Lives and Survivorships was organized in London through the efforts of Thomas Simpson and Tames Dodson. It was the first company to issue insurance for the whole period of life at level or other fixed premiums, and for fixed stuns payable at death. The computations were based on a mortality table, adjusted from the vital statistics of London by- these gentlemen and published in I752.

In 178o Dr. Richard Price, a Scotch clergyman, published seweral mortality tables which he had constructed, including the famous Northampton Table, drawn from the mortality records of two parishes in Northampton. This table was adopted by, the Equitable as its standard, and also by the British government as a standard for annuities. Dr. Price also gave tables, drawn from the vital statistics collected by the Swedish government at the suggestion of the philosopher, Menander.


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