On one Uniform Law of Mortality from Birth to extreme Old Age, and on the Law of Sickness

Abstract

The honour I have received by the invitation of the President and members for organising the Fourth Session of the International Statistical Congress, to be held daring the week commencing the 16th July instant, which the state of my health prevents me having the satisfaction to attend, induces me to offer to the notice of the distinguished members some observations which, I think, may be considered of some importance in connexion with the objects of the Congress; having for many years paid attention to the subject of vital statistics, and to the mode of rendering the information derivable from its pursuit interesting, beneficially and scientifically, to the public, who may gain consoling pecuniary advantage from it, and to the student, who may enjoy the contemplation of the paths of science; because the services which have been obtained by the public from Assurance Societies, and from the proper management of Friendly Societies, have been obtained by the attentive and philanthropic study of the subject, and the mode of pursuing that study depends on statistical inquiries, and, I may say, on deep mathematical reflection,—a reflection which, whilst it may and has been of important service to society at large, may offer many new views in philosophical and mathematical branches of enquiry even quite unconnected with statistics or its objects.