The relation of cancer to life assurance : a paper read at the Life Assurance Medical Officers' Association, May 5th, 1897, with a discussion / by Joseph Frank Payne.

  • Payne, Joseph Frank, 1840-1910.
Date:
[1897]
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The relation of cancer to life assurance : a paper read at the Life Assurance Medical Officers' Association, May 5th, 1897, with a discussion / by Joseph Frank Payne. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    questions have been raised, particularly the age of the parents or other relatives alleged to have died of Cancer. That point I did not refer to, but probably it has some importance. The argument is that if parents have died of Cancer at quite an old age, it is of no consequence, but if you find an early death from Cancer in a family, it is a significant fact and indicates a bad prognosis. Now it has been said by some that the tendency of Cancer and perhaps other hereditary diseases is for the age of incidence in a succeeding generation to become lower. Supposing one generation died at a certain age, in the next generation, if they died of the same disease, they would die younger. I cannot find that that is at all proved, but, still, on the other hand, it is not at all certain that death from Cancer is likely to occur at the same age in successive generations. Dr. Thin very properly asked what is the practice of offices in this respect ? There is no doubt that the practice of different offices varies ; but I think it is very desirable, if possible, that there should be an uniform practice in this matter. I am glad to find that Dr. Pollock, from his very large experience, supports to a considerable extent the suggestions that I made as to the practical rules to be followed, and especially the difference that ought to be made between male and female lives, which lie has not noticed in his published work. In consideration of his remarks and those of other members, I will revise my proposed practice rules before the paper is printed. But I think there is another difficulty which was also referred to by Dr. Pollock, and that is that if rules of this kind were strictly carried out by one office, that society might lose business. In fact I have found that the opinion of the medical officer on this subject did not always agree with that of the directors or the actuary, and these gentlemen have brought forward the very objection to which i I have referred. Therefore, if all could agree upon some general' principle being correct, it would be much better, and there would be no temptation for any office to be too rigid, or to be too lenient. Some surprise has been expressed that the table furnished by Dr. Tatham shows so large a proportion of deaths from Cancer in old age, contradicting the general impression that after 70 few