First: Instead of having a reference to volume 14 only he has references to volumes 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 22, 24, 25, 26, 27 and 28,—nineteen volumes in all,—say a gain of 1800% in efficiency.

Second: Instead of having one article Insurance to refer to, he has reference to specific information in the following articles:

That is, to 28 new articles,—say 2800% additional gain.

Observe, too, that this is a gain that cannot be expressed in figures. The index references are classified. First there is a main head Insurance; then subheads, Fire, Life, Marine, Title, Workmen’s; and under the subheads special topics arranged alphabetically.

In brief, the Index facilitates and accelerates reference to anything in the Britannica that bears on any desired topic.

The article Insurance opens with a definition of that word and with drawing a distinction between it and “assurance.” The general history of insurance traces marine insurance back to Greek commerce in the 4th century B.C., but shows that modern methods of marine insurance were unknown until the 14th century; that fire insurance dates from the 17th century and especially from the Great Fire of London in 1666; and that, although there were a few instances of life insurance in the 16th and 17th centuries, it did not become a regular business until the 18th century and was not widely extended until the 19th century. Separate sections of the article deal with Casualty (or accident) and Miscellaneous Insurance, Fire Insurance, Life Insurance, British Post Office Insurance, and Marine Insurance.

The section on British Post-Office Insurance will give to the American insurance man a knowledge of this innovation in the post-office to which the American post-office seems to be tending, if one may judge by the introduction of postal savings-banks and the adoption of the parcels-post system.

In the same way the article Old Age Pensions will make you acquainted with another radical measure which has been adopted in Great Britain, Germany, France, Denmark, Victoria and notably New Zealand, with fuller description in the article New Zealand. The importance of the subject to the American insurance man lies in the fact that similar schemes are under consideration or actual operation in Massachusetts, New Jersey, and other states of the United States. In the same way the article on Employers Liability and Workmen’s Insurance will give him a wider grasp of the subject of state insurance, mandatory or elective, for workmen.

The principal articles on insurance topics have already been mentioned. It is to be noted, however, that the actuary will find important information in the mathematical articles Mensuration and Probability; that the article Friendly Societies is supplemented by such special articles as Free Masonry, B’nai Brith, Building Societies, Burial Societies, Odd Fellows, etc.