Premiums in 1771. Present Premiums. Age. Male. Female. _£_ _s._ _d._ _£_ _s._ _d._ _£_ _s._ _d._ 14 2 17 0 3 3 11 1 17 7 20 3 9 4 3 14 3 2 3 7 25 3 14 0 4 1 5 2 8 1 30 3 18 7 4 4 4 2 13 4 40 4 17 9 5 4 8 3 8 0 49 6 2 5 6 11 0 4 17 10 In 1769, the continuance of the Equitable must have been very doubtful; and had it not been for Dr. Price’s treatise, which recommended it to public notice, it is possible that this beneficial institution would have been closed. Hitherto its actuaries had been men who knew nothing about their business. The first, Mr. Mosdell, was a simple accountant; its second, Mr. Dodson, son of the mathematician, possessed the name, without the acquirements, of his father; the third, Mr. Edwards, was sufficiently aware of his own incapacity never to trust to himself; the fourth was a vice-president, who knew about as much of the art as his predecessor; nor was it until 1775, when Mr. Morgan was appointed, through the interest of his uncle, Dr. Price, that any real progress was made. From this period a new era may be dated; and “the society, no longer going on from year to year in ignorance and terror, incapable of deducing any just conclusion as to its real state, became now, by its more intimate connection with Dr. Price, possessed of ample means for ascertaining that fact and forming its future measures on the solid principles of mathematical science.”