eboon, in 1743; while Parcieux, father and son, St. Cyran, and
Duvillard, in France, with Euler, Suchmilch, and Wargentin, in Germany,
were with great ability pressing the subject upon the notice of their
countrymen. But these efforts led to no practical results, and it was
reserved for England at a later day to illustrate the principles of life
assurance, and enable the public to enjoy extensively its privileges.

Policies of life assurance were issued in England before any companies
were organized to prosecute the business. Like marine policies, they
were subscribed by one or more individuals; and the first case we find
is that of a ship captain, in 1641, whose life had been insured by two
persons who had become his bail. The policy was subscribed by individual
underwriters, and an able author observes that the case singularly
illustrates the connection which probably once existed between life and
maritime insurance, and shows how naturally the latter may have sprung
from the former.

No business, with the exception, perhaps, of the express system and of
photography, has grown in the United States so rapidly as that of life
assurance. There is scarcely a State that has not one or more companies
organized for the prosecution of this business. There are six chartered
under the laws of Massachusetts, and twenty-six of those organized in
other States are doing business in this Commonwealth, These companies
had in force, November 1, 1865, 211,537 policies, assuring the sum of
$563,396,862.30. In 1830 the New York Life and Trust Company was the
only life assurance company in New York. At the close of the year 1865
there were eighteen companies chartered under the laws of that State.
They had 101,780 policies in force, assuring the sum of $289,846,316.50,
while their gross combined assets reach the sum of $32,296,832.03.

An insurance upon life is defined as "a contract by which the
underwriter, for a certain sum proportioned to the age, health,
profession, and other circumstances of the person whose life is the
object of insurance, engages that that person shall not die within the
time limited in the policy; or if he do, that he will pay a sum of money
to him in whose favor the policy was granted."

A person desiring to effect an insurance on his life usually procures
from the office in which he proposes to insure a blank form, containing
a series of interrogatories, all of which must be answered in writing by
the applic