Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 April 1893 — THE SCIENCE OF INSURANCE. [ARTICLE]

THE SCIENCE OF INSURANCE.

It Had Its Origin in a Problem Suggested by Card Playing. It is a curious fact that the “doctrine of probabilities,” or the scientific basis upon which all insurance rests, had its origin in a game of curds. That is to say, the foundation upon which this great economy depends, and upon which it owes its claims to the confidence and patronage of the community, originated from investigations regarding games of chances. It happened in this way: About the year 1050 the Chevalier de Mere, a Flemish nobleman, who was both a respectable mathematician and an ardent gamester, attempted to solve the problem of dividing equitably the stakes when a game of chance was interrupted. The problem was too difficult for him, nnd he sought the aid of the famous Abbe Blaise Pascal, a Jesuit priest, author of “Night Thoughts,” and one of the most accomplished mathematicians of any age. Pascal solved the problem, and in so doing enunciated the “doctrine of probabilities,” or laws governing socalled chances. Upon this depend not only the laws governing insurance of all kinds, but also the laws governing the motions of planets in space, and, in fact, all astronomical science. This doctrine or theory Pascal illustrated by the throwing of dice. When a single dice is thrown the chance of turning up an ace is precisely one out of six, or one out of the total number of sides or faces. But if a large number of throws are made, it will be found that each face will be turned up an equal number of times. From this Pascal laid down the proposition that results which have happened in any given number of observed cases will again happen under similar circumstances, provided the numbers be sufficient for the proper working of the law of uverage. Thus the duration of the life of a single individual is one of the greatest uncertainties, but the duration, or rate of mortality of a large number of individuals may be predicted with great accuracy by comparison with the observed results among a sufficiently large number of persons of similar ages, occupations ana climatic influences.