As such, it calls attention to the fact that the amount of insurance
claims met, and of interest receipts, _are limits_ which the corresponding
expenses cannot exceed, certainly for a series of years together, without
making the _expense_ more than the _advantage_ of the business. To keep
this fact in view, _as a preventive of extravagance_, is not the least
valuable service the new mode may render. It may be seen that there are
eight cases in the table, in which the ratio of insurance expense points
to expenses exceeding the insurance claims met in the same time, yet the
reader need not hasten to conclude that the same companies will
permanently show similar ratios, or have no good reasons to give for the
ones which now appear. I may remark, however, that it is an evidence of
the scientific mode in which the figures are presented, that it
facilitates such explanations as are pertinent of any of the ratios.
For instance, some of the ratios are undoubtedly affected by the fact that
the claims for the year of the company in question have been exceptionally
high or low, or that the company (being of recent organization perhaps)
has just incurred exceptional expense to increase its business, the
advantage of which will appear later, etc.
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