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Observations on reversionary payments (1772)
Observations on reversionary payments - 1772 Author:Richard Price Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: fi S S A Y I. Containing Obfervations on the Ex- pedtation s of Lives; the Increafe of Mankind ; the Number of Inhabitants in London ; and the Influence of gr... more »eat Towns, on Health and Population. In a Letter to Benjamin Franklin, Efp, LL.D. WF.R.S. Dear Sir, I Beg leave to fubmit to your perufal the following obfervations. If you think them, of any importance, I (hall be obliged to you for communicating them to the Royal Society. You will find, that the chief fubjeft of them is the prefent ftate of the city of London, with refpeft to healthfulnefs and number of inhabitants, as far as it can be collected from the bills of mortality. This is a fubjecl: that has been confidered by others; but the proper method of calculating This Eflay was read to the Royal Society, April 27th, 1769, and has been publiftied in the Philo- fophical Tranfadtions, Vol. 59. It is here republiflied with corrections j and feveral additions, particularly the ffarift. M from from the bills has not, I think, been fuffici ently explained. No competent judgment can be formed of the following obiervations, without a clea,r notion of what the writers on Life-Annuities and Reverjions have called the Expectation of Life. 'Perhaps this is not in common properly underftood; and Mr. De Moivre's manner of exprefiing himfelf about it is very liable to be miftaken. The moft obvious fenfe of the expeStation of a given life is, " That particular number ' of years which a life of a given age has an - f equal chance of enjoying." This is .pro- perly the time that a peribn may reafonably expeft to live; for the chances againjl his living longer are greater than thole for it; and, therefore, he cannot entertain an expectation of living longer, confidently with probability. This period does not coi...« less