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Science & Political Science
Lot 27
THE BEGINNING OF EPIDEMIOLOGY AND DEMOGRAPHICS. GRAUNT, JOHN. 1620-1674. Natural and political observations mentioned in a following index and made upon the bills of mortality.... London: Printed by Tho: Roycroft, for John Martin, James Allestry, and Tho: Dicas, 1662.
31 March – 8 April 2025, 12:00 EDT
Online, New YorkSold for US$28,160 inc. premium
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THE BEGINNING OF EPIDEMIOLOGY AND DEMOGRAPHICS.
GRAUNT, JOHN. 1620-1674. Natural and political observations mentioned in a following index and made upon the bills of mortality.... London: Printed by Tho: Roycroft, for John Martin, James Allestry, and Tho: Dicas, 1662.
4to (187 x 138 mm). Woodcut headpieces and initials, large folding "Table of Casualties," and folding table of "Number of burials and christenings...." Calf antique, spine gilt, small paper repair to title, minor marginal staining, large paper repair to final leaf (affecting text).
Provenance: Property from a New England Collector.
FIRST EDITION OF THE FIRST WORK ON EPIDEMIOLOGY, DEMOGRAPHICS AND MEDICAL STATISTICS. "He was the first to recognize the importance of vital statistics and the need for reducing them to order, which he found to be possible by mathematical calculation, leading to important conclusions on the social and economic conditions of the people ... The application of critical scientific methods to medical and vital statistics, which underlies so much of modern government and economics, can be traced back to Graunt's remarkable book" (PMM 144). Graunt, considered the founding father of demography, epidemiology and vital statistics, compiled medical data including births and deaths from the reports of parish clerks of London, statistically analyzing the data in order to provide broad analysis of human populations from localized data. Graunt's new science of statistics enabled governments to "reduce several great confused volumes into a few perspicuous tables." NLM/Krivatsy 4951; Norman 933; PMM 144.
4to (187 x 138 mm). Woodcut headpieces and initials, large folding "Table of Casualties," and folding table of "Number of burials and christenings...." Calf antique, spine gilt, small paper repair to title, minor marginal staining, large paper repair to final leaf (affecting text).
Provenance: Property from a New England Collector.
FIRST EDITION OF THE FIRST WORK ON EPIDEMIOLOGY, DEMOGRAPHICS AND MEDICAL STATISTICS. "He was the first to recognize the importance of vital statistics and the need for reducing them to order, which he found to be possible by mathematical calculation, leading to important conclusions on the social and economic conditions of the people ... The application of critical scientific methods to medical and vital statistics, which underlies so much of modern government and economics, can be traced back to Graunt's remarkable book" (PMM 144). Graunt, considered the founding father of demography, epidemiology and vital statistics, compiled medical data including births and deaths from the reports of parish clerks of London, statistically analyzing the data in order to provide broad analysis of human populations from localized data. Graunt's new science of statistics enabled governments to "reduce several great confused volumes into a few perspicuous tables." NLM/Krivatsy 4951; Norman 933; PMM 144.