Stochastic Processes for Insurance and Finance. By T. Rolski, H. Schmidli, V. Schmidt and J. Teugels (John Wiley, Chichester, 1999)

dated 1818, but is actually an 1836 reprint. In Volume 8, the report of the select committee on marine insurance 1810, is actually an 1824 reprint. The contents page in Volume 7 lists Corbyn Morris's `An essay towards deciding the important question, whether it be a national advantage to Britain to insure the ships of her enemies?' of 1758. The introductory page to the text on page 207 relates that the text is Corbyn Morris's `An essay on the science of insurance', and also that it is the revised and expanded version of 1758, which is reproduced. There is no revised and expanded edition of 1758 of the essay on the science of insurance. The actual text given is the `Essay on the science of insurance' of 1743. There is no editorial mention at all in the history of the early forms of marine insurance of bottomry and respondentia. In summary, there is a large amount of valuable material in this history. Some of the material is trivial, and the editors do not indicate the importance of each item. There are potential problems for the inexperienced. Overall though, there is much benefit in the work.