The present work is designed to set forth in concise form the essential facts and theoretical relations with reference to the duration Of human life. A description is first given of those mortality tables which have had the greatest influence on the development of the science of life contingencies or on its appli cation in this country. A few chapters are then devoted to the mathematical relations between the various functions connected with human mortality, to the analysis of probabilities of death or survival, so as to lead to their simplest form of expression in terms of the mortality table, and to the general mathematical laws which have been proposed to express the facts of human mortality. The connection is then established between the mortality table and mortality statistics and some investigation made of the corrections which must be allowed for in interpreting such statistics. The methods of constructing mortality tables from census and death returns and from insurance experience are then taken up. The methods adopted for the purpose of adjusting the rough data derived from experience are next described and their theoretical basis investigated. Some of these methods of construction and graduation are then illustrated by a new mortality table now first published. In the Appendix ten useful tables are given.
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