An Interactive Annotated World Bibliography of Printed and Digital Works in the History of Medicine and the Life Sciences from Circa 2000 BCE to 2022 by Fielding H. Garrison (1870-1935), Leslie T. Morton (1907-2004), and Jeremy M. Norman (1945- ) Traditionally Known as “Garrison-Morton”

15961 entries, 13944 authors and 1935 subjects. Updated: March 22, 2024

HALLEY, Edmond

1 entries
  • 1687

An estimate of the degrees of mortality of mankind, drawn from curious tables of the births and funerals at the city of Breslaw, with an attempt to ascertain the price of annuities upon lives.

Phil. Trans., 17, 596-610, 1693.

Halley, the astronomer, compiled the “Breslau tables” to show “the proportion of men able to bear arms … to estimate mortality rates, to ascertain the price of annuities upon lives, and was thus the virtual founder of vital statistics” (Garrison). The data on which Halley based his conclusions were supplied to him by Caspar Neumann, a pastor of Breslau. Because Neumann's correspondence with the Royal Society was lost, Halley's paper is the only record of the statistics that Neumann collected.



Subjects: DEMOGRAPHY / Population: Medical Statistics