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sured lives generally; the phenomenon is, however, ascribed mainly to the disinclination of old men, who feel that their chances of life are as good as, or better than, the average at their ages, to continue to carry life insurance, which is usually no longer needed.

The wisdom, also, of continuing to employ a conservative table, giving somewhat redundant premiums and reserves in some cases, as a standard of solvency, is justified by the fact that, while the death-losses of companies are each year, on the average, less than the expected by either the Actuaries' or American Experience Table, individual companies have more than once showed mortality equal to the expected by the tables.

Accordingly, the Actuaries' and the American Experience Tables have continued to be standards in the United States. The Actuaries' Table has generally, though not always, been the standard where the rate of interest was set at 4 per cent., and the American Experience Table has always been the standard where the rate of interest has been set at either four and one-half per cent, or three and one-half per cent. No State has made the standard rate of interest for reserve computations three per cent.; but in company calculations, where that rate is employed, the mortality table chosen has usually been the American Experience Table.