The opinion is expressed sometimes that of recent years less interest has been taken by the profession generally in Sessional meetings of the Institute, and in the preparation of original contributions for the Journal. It is urged that actuarial subjects have been fully covered by earlier writers, and that in consequence a narrowing field for active interest exists.

The object of this paper is to examine the statistics available and, if possible, to decide whether the views stated above are justified. For this purpose two main ‘yard-sticks’ will be used.