Ise NATURAL INHERITANCE. [CHAP. X.
them far from being as exact as is desirable. [See, for example, the discussion on a memoir by G. Humphreys, Actuary to the Eagle Insurance Company, read before the Institute of Actuaries.-Insur. Hag. xviii. p. 178.]
Considering the enormous money value concerned, it would seem well worth the while of the higher class of those offices to combine in order to obtain a collection of completed cases for at least two generations, or better still, for three ; such as those in Examples A and B, Appendix G, but much fuller in detail. Being completed and anonymous, there could be little objection on the score of invaded privacy. They would have no perceptible effect on the future insurances of descendants of the families, even if these were identified, and they would lay the basis of a very much better knowledge of hereditary disease than we now possess, serving as a step for fresh departures. A main point is that the cases should not be picked and chosen to support any theory, but taken as they come to hand. There must be a vast amount of good material in existence at the command of the medical officers of Insurance Companies. If it were combined and made
freely accessible, it would give material for many years' work to competent statisticians, and would be certain, judging from all experience of a like kind, to lead to unexpected results.
