The important and laborious investigation of which we give the results in the following pages is the last serious contribution to statistical knowledge by Mons. Marco Besso, a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries of some years' standing, and an insurance expert of wide experience and great repute throughout the continent. The paper was at first published in part in the Bulletin de l'Institute de Statistique, and a translation subsequently appeared in the German Annual Magazine of Herr Ehrensweig.

The earliest event of the year 1844 was the presentation to Parliament of the “First Report” of the Committee on Joint-Stock Companies, appointed in 1841. The report set out by stating that, as a good deal of the information affecting persons was in the nature of ex parte statements, caution would be required in promulgating it: hence much of the evidence collected would he stated summarily. I shall confine myself here to the passages bearing upon Insurance Associations.

The subject of this paper was suggested by a perusal of the correspondence in the 12th and 13th volumes of the Journal, in which several members of the Institute engaged, and which left the matter in an unsatisfactory position.

Since that time no further notice of the subject appears to have been taken; but the publication of the last Government Annuity Tables renders further investigation of the subject possible.