Abstract
Referring mainly to German insurance legislation adopted in the period from 1881 to 1911, though taking examples also from other countries, the author systematically deals with the various aspects of the question, including the nature of benefits, the object of insurance, forms of benefit (pensions, lump sum payments, benefits in kind), qualification for benefit (both general conditions and those connected with the eventuation of the risk), the calculation of benefits (varying with the different branches of insurance), its duration (varying both in different countries and with different risks), the difficulty of overlapping benefits, and the protection of benefits, which are a legal right and not a charitable gift.