Abstract of a Paper on the Progressive Rates of Mortality as occurring in all Ages, and on certain Deviations; also on Dr. Buchanan’s ‘Physiological Law of Mortality’

Extract

The progressive rates of mortality, from birth to extreme old age, in a given number of any population, are known from the proportionate numbers who die at the different ages. This is the only mode of estimating correctly the expectation or conceived “security” of life at any given age—viz., by showing the chance which an individual has of living a certain number of years or shorter periods.