Hanover Square, of St. James's, and Marylebone,
die at an average age, by which the
probability of life is reduced, in their case,
fifteen years below the healthy standard.

These facts were urged three or four years
ago upon the notice of Assurance Offices, in a
pamphlet by the secretary of the then existent
Health of Towns' Association, Mr. Henry
Austin.  Since the interest of Life Assurance
Companies lies clearly in a recognition of the
facts disclosed in sanitary tables, we have
little doubt that wholesomeness will, before
long, find stout advocates among the gentlemen
who have invested an aggregate of about
fifty millions in speculation on the probabilities
of life.  It is quite true that the tables
upon which Assurance Companies now work,
have been formed upon a general average of
probabilities safe in the gross; but it is not
fair to the public, and certainly not wise, in a
commercial sense, to continue to work on a
gross average.

It has been shown that the probability of
life differs constantly and strikingly, according
to the nature of certain well-known external
conditions.  Just as, in Fire Offices, buildings
pay for their assurance in proportion to their
chance of being burnt; so, in Life Assurance,
policies should be made out on scales fairly
proportioned in each case to the hazard.
When it is notorious that of two children
born in different parts of England, the chance
of life in one is double or treble the chance of
life in the other, it ceases to be fair that each
should pay to an Assurance Office the same
premium.  Healthy men living under healthy
circumstances, pay too much, individually, to
Assurance Companies; their neighbours, in
unwholesome districts, pay too little.  The
recognition of the difference that should be
made between them in the charge for a life
policy, would operate, we think, with a most
wholesome effect upon the public. It would
induce, also, a very much increased amount
of Life Assurance among the healthiest and
safest men; and by diminishing only the
quantity of business done with men whose
lives are hazardous, would certainly increase
the profits of the Companies.

Again, if the Directors of Assurance
Companies could only travel like the Devil on
Two Sticks, and peep under the roofs of the
assured from whom they get their yearly
aggregate of premiums; if they could with
their own eyes see how here a drain, there an
ill-ventilated bed-chamber, elsewhere some
other cause of bodily decay easily removable,
rots away lives, and bites daily and nightly
like a rust into the Company's gold; they
would acquire so great an itch for speaking
words in season here and there—would be so
eager to provide the stitch in time that saves
nine years perhaps of premium in one case
and another—that, as if possessed, they would
all rush together to plunge headlong into the
stream of sanitary progress.  The health of
assured lives is the cash of the Assurance
Company, and, as cash, it is worth increasing.
The body of an assured person is one of the
Company's cash-boxes, and, like a cash-box,
should be kept as strong as possible.

But how, it will be said, can this be done
by an Assurance Company without impertinent
intrusion on its customers?  Assurance
Companies will never be allowed to institute
domiciliary visits, and inquire into the
private arrangements of a Briton?  Perhaps
not.  The Briton is a little testy on the
subject of his trueuess, his blueness, and his
independence.  A man who has assured his
life cannot, it is true, say that his life is his
own, and that he may waste it if he pleases.
He is morally as culpable in any wilful following
of an unwholesome practice as he would
be in any other breach of contract which
defrauds his neighbour.  Knowing at the same
time how the Briton likes to keep house well
and economically, we think that, so far from
objecting, he might be extremely glad
occasionally to welcome to his castle a professional
man, competent to tell him of anything,
in drainage or elsewhere, about it dangerous
to the health of himself and of his family, and
to advise him upon sanitary matters without
any charge.  Be that as it may, we are quite
sure that the public would rejoice to
witness the establishment of officers upon
the staff of all Assurance Companies, whose
duty it should be to certify to the directors
the good or bad sanitary conditions under
which proposed assurers may be living.
Holders of policies might be required to give
notice of any change of residence, in order
that, where it might seem necessary, the new
dwelling might be inspected, and any source
of sickness in it be detected and removed.  If
it should be found incurably defective and
past remedy—more dangerous than the
preceding abode—a suitable addition to the
premium should be charged on its account.
Beyond these necessary limits, the medical
officer appointed by the Company could be
empowered to transgress at his own discretion,
in coming to the aid of the assured with so
much sanitary knowledge and experience as
might be exercised without offence on their
behalf.

A few medical officers of this kind, paid
with such salaries as would secure to the
Assurance Companies their whole time, and
ensure that it should be spent in service of
the highest class, would mediate in the most
valuable way between assurers and assured.
At the same time the whole plan would
indirectly do great service to the nobility,
gentry, and public in general, by bringing
the main facts that concern public health into
direct, practical relation with the business of
life.  When men who will not take care of
their health find themselves lowered in
commercial value by the inhalation of foul air, a
neglected drain under a house may come to
be thought as unbusiness-like as a blotted
ledger, and a man who takes recklessly to the