The following are some of the best recent definitions of insurance: "Insurance is a contract by which the one party, in consideration of a price paid to him adequate to the risk, becomes security to the other that he shall not suffer loss, prejudice, or damage by the happening of the perils specified to certain things which may be exposed to them; a contract whereby one party undertakes to indemnify or guarantee the other against loss by certain specified risks; an act or system of insuring or assuring against loss; specifically the system by or under which indemnity or pecuniary payment is guaranteed by one party or several parties to another party, in certain contingencies, upon specified terms." 1

"Insurance is a conditional contract, whereby one party undertakes to indemnify another against loss, damage, or liability arising from some specified but contingent event."2

"A contract whereby, for an agreed premium, one party undertakes to compensate the other for loss on a specified subject by specified perils." 3