Samuel Brown, Preface to On the Mortality Experience of Life Assurance Companies, Collected by the Institute of Actuaries (1869), excerpt

Nearly a quarter of a century having elapsed since the period to which the combined experience of 17 Life Assurance Offices was collected, it began to be felt amongst Actuaries and the Managers of Companies that a large mass of valuable materials had accumulated which, if combined, would tend to throw further light on the law of mortality amongst Assured Lives, and on other points affecting the interest and prosperity of Assurance Companies.