On the causes of death in the Scottish Widows' Fund Life Assurance Society from January 1853 to January 1860 / by James Begbie.

  • James Warburton Begbie
Date:
1860
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the causes of death in the Scottish Widows' Fund Life Assurance Society from January 1853 to January 1860 / by James Begbie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

    20/32 page 20
    he adds, It may almost be assumed, therefore, that the Company has nearly attained the limit of improvement, so far as this cause of mortality is concerned. The experience of every Life Association, however, as it reaches mature age, and obtains an average number of risks at every period of life, will, I apprehend, be much more favour- able. As regards this Society, it is satisfactory to find that the average survivancy of each of the 122 emerged risks of this class is 17-93 years, the average expectation being 25'69 years. Thus each attained, on an average, considerably upwards of three-fifths of his expectation term ; and there is reason to expect, in future investigations, a still more favourable return. Disease of the Heart, as a class, is one in which much may be done in diminishing loss. Attention to family predisposition, avoiding as far as possible the gouty and rheumatic habits, and careful examination of the chest, will tend to exclude many who might otherwise become claims at an early age on the bene- fits of Life Assurance. Still, chronic Heart Disease, with its kindred and often associated Apoplexy and Palsy, must prove a fruitful source of death, even under the most rigid system of examination. The great organ of the circulation, and its innumerable vessels, after long years of unceasing action, must become subject to change and decay —to slow, progressive degeneration, which no skill or scrutiny can always detect, and whose existence is only disclosed when the palsied limbs, or oppressed brain, or pulseless heart, have suddenly and un- expectedly declared how irreparable it is. Of these victims of Heart Disease it was known in regard to fifteen of the number, that, previous to acceptance, they had been affected with Rheumatic Fever, or were hereditarily predisposed to it; and, in regard to ten others, that they had suffered from Rheumatic Gout, or were members of gouty families. Those who are best informed in regard to the intimate relation and frequent association of these blood disorders with Disease of the Heart and its vessels, will be best able to conjecture in how many others, after acceptance, the origin of the fatal malady was laid in the constitutional tendency to Rheumatism and Gout. The following Table exhibits the mortality from chronic Disease of the Heart, compared with that from all other causes, at six decen- nial periods, and the percentage of death at the successive ages :—
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3