On the Computation of Annuities on Mr. Makeham's hypothesis

Extract

It is now some seven years since Mr. Makeham pointed out that if our mortality tables were graduated by his formula, , “all summations connected with questions of population, the expectation of life, as well as the values of annuities, would be reduced” to the form . Since that time Mr. Makeham's formula, though not representing the law of mortality so closely as some others which have been or can be presented, has nevertheless, on account of its comparative simplicity and its great practical advantages, made manifest progress in the favor of the profession. Messrs. Woolhouse and Brown, among others, have constructed life tables in accordance with it, and it is understood that many actuaries favor its general adoption.