Description: Article from The Actuary, October 1971 – volume 5 - Issue 8 that talks about society's love of dirt and how it affects the life insurance industry.

Description: This article is a book review of Gerald T. Gruman's, A History of Ideas about the Prolongation of Life, which gives an historical view of the desire to extend the human life span.

Description: Article discusses the how the older population has been treated throughout history with low regard and often as a burden on society.

Description: Actuaries have been indebted to the Statistical Bureau of the Metropolitan Life for studies in vital statistics associated with the names of Dublin, Lew and Spiegelman and a recent study by Quint and Cody is in this tradition. It is headed Preeminence and Mortality and was presented to the Annual Meeting of the American Public Health Association last November. This article shares further perspectives about longevity, and the characteristics of people who experience long lives.

Description: This is a book review of 'The Biological Time-Bomb' by Gordon R. Taylor. The explosion inferred in the book's title is that of our advance in biological knowledge - man’s probe into nature: the origin of life, the deferment of death, tinkering with heredity, the transplantation of organs, etc.

Description: This article discusses the trend of increasing life expectancy due to the progress of molecular genetics and the possible social consequences. From The Actuary, January 1971, Vol. 5, No. 1.

Description: Reflections on aging populations.

Description: This article reviews environmental issues as discussed in The Doomsday Book by Thames and Hudson, London. From The Actuary, May 1971, Vol. 5, No. 5.

Description: This report is a brief summary of a symposium held in Sweden in March 1972, initiated and sponsored by the Swedish insurance companies which discusses the side effects of the development of modern chemical industry and the exposure of living organisms to a variety of chemicals in the environment. The danger of the long term effects on health are addressed.

Description: This article describes quotes from the Bible that relate to the length of life and compares them to modern life expectancy statistics.