Eleven years have elapsed since anything on the subject of Office Books was before you. Mr. M'Lauchlan's paper, which was read in April 1886, has long since become a classic, and has been of incalculable service as a text-book for the Faculty and Institute Examinations. All-embracing as it is, however, its great scope rendered it impossible to treat, within the limits of one paper, all aspects of Life Office Book-keeping and its kindred topic Life Office Records, so fully as may be done by taking the subjects in sections. I shall be glad, therefore, if my contribution be looked upon as a practical tribute of my sense of indebtedness to Mr. M'Lauchlan's paper, and as an attempt to expand a small portion of it. I hope my example may be the means of inducing others to do likewise.

Mr. R. P. Hardy recently said (J.I.A., vol. xxxii, p. 443) that to frame a scheme of books and forms that were at once analytical and interlocking, presenting at the same time the maximum of convenience for the needs of to-day, encumbered by the mere minimum of what was indispensable for the emerging wants of the future, was in itself a liberal and highly stimulating education.