38 GRAUNT. 



intermissions between 1d94< and 1603 have since been regularly 

 continued, they proceed thus. 



They were first intended to make known the progress of the plague ; 

 and it was not till 1662 that Captain Graunt, a most acute and intel- 

 ligent man, conceived the idea of rendering them subservient to the 

 ulterior objects of determining the population and growth of the me- 

 tropolis ; as before his time, to use his own words, " most of them who 

 constantly took in the weekly bills of mortality, made little or no use 

 of them than so as they might take the same as a text to talk upon in 

 the next company; and withal, in the plague time, how the sickness 

 increased or decreased, that so the rich might guess of the necessity of 

 their removal, and tradesmen might conjecture what doings they were 

 like to have in their respective dealings." Graunt was careful to pub- 

 lish with his deductions the actual returns from which they were 

 obtained, comparing himself, when so doing, to "a silly schoolboy, 

 coming to say his lesson to the world (that peevish and tetchie master,) 

 who brings a bundle of rods, wherewith to be whipped for every mistake 

 he has committed." Many subsequent writers have betrayed more fear 

 of the punishment they might be liable to on making similar disclosures, 

 and have kept entirely out of sight the sources of their conclusions. 

 The immunity they have thus purchased from contradiction could not 

 be obtained but at the expense of confidence in their results. 



These researches procured for Graunt the honour of being chosen a 

 fellow of the Koyal Society, . . . 



Gouraud says in a note on his page 16, 



...John Graunt, homme sans geometric, mais qui ne manquait ni 

 de sagacite ni de bon sens, avait, dans une sorte de traite d'Arithme- 

 tique politique intitule: Natural and 'political observations .. .made itpon 

 the hills of mortality^ etc., rassemble ces difierentes listes, et donne meme 

 i^ihid. chap, xi.) un calcul, a la verite fort grossier, mais du moins fort 

 original, de la mortalite probable \ chaque age d'un certain nombre 

 d'individus supposes n6s viables tons au meme instant. 



See also the AtJienceum for October 31st, 1863, page 537. 



56. The names of two Dutchmen next present themselves, 



Van Hudden and John de Witt. Montucla says, page 407, 



Le probleme des rentes viageres fut traite par Van Hudden, qui 

 quoique geometre, ne laissa pas que d'etre bourguemestre d' Amsterdam, 



