On an Investigation of the Mortality and Marriage Experience of the Widows' Funds of the Scottish Banks

Extract

Having on several occasions been employed to investigate and report upon the Widows' Funds of certain Banks in Scotland, and having found no available tables specially suited to work of that kind, Mr. Hewat had, like other actuaries, to fall back upon existing tables which have been considered more or less appropriate and presumably safe enough for the purpose in view. Not being quite satisfied that these tables are sufficiently reliable for use in the actuarial investigations of these increasingly important Funds, and holding the opinion that the actuary, like other skilled workmen, should never allow his work to suffer for want of a proper instrument or tool, he resolved to emulate the intelligent and enterprising workman in other professions—the surgeon and the engineer, for example—and manufacture an instrument specially adapted to the particular class of work in hand.