The Registrar-General's Decennial Supplement 1921—England and Wales—Part I, recently published, is of more than usual interest. It embodies the Report of the Government Actuary, Sir Alfred Watson, who was invited to undertake the task of preparing National Life Tables in connection with the Census of 1921.

In addition to the preparation of English Life Tables No. 9 for Males and Females separately, the only other tables prepared with similar completeness were those relating to Greater London, being the area comprised within the radius of about fifteen miles measured from Charing Cross. On the other hand, the mortality experience of no fewer than twenty-six sections of the country, differentiated by geographical position and density of population, was examined in considerable detail—a feature which, together with others referred to later, distinguishes this investigation from its predecessors.