The two-fold purpose of this paper is:

(i) To hypothesize the existence of a Basic Curve of Deaths, a curve to which it is suggested all curves of deaths are, as it were, striving to attain—the ‘idea’ of a curve of deaths, almost in a Platonic sense, a curve applicable not only to humanity, but equally to all forms of life.

(ii) To seek a representation of that curve by a function containing as few parameters as possible, on the principle that while there are other functions which fit the observations more exactly, we here prefer a simple function which fits them well enough.

The general impression gained from a broad review of the earlier activities of the Institute is that the actuary of those days appears to have been less concerned with the question of the investment of funds than the actuary is to-day. There are several factors which lend support to this impression. First, in those earlier years the actuary, probably being preoccupied with the purely actuarial side of life assurance, friendly society and pension fund business, may have been content to leave the matter of investment to others and to accept their advice regarding the rates of interest to be assumed in his actuarial calculations. Secondly, both the field of investment and the volume of funds requiring investment being very much smaller, the problem may not have appeared to justify much greater attention than was paid to it. Perhaps the most likely reason, however, was that the practice of investment may have been regarded more as an art than a science and as a subject therefore which did not readily lend itself to an actuarial approach.