Natural and political observations mentioned in a following index, and made upon the Bills of Mortality.

The first book on vital statistics. Graunt, a draper, studied the Bills of Mortality, which began as weekly lists of deaths and their causes, compiled by parish clerks. They gained much in importance after Graunt’s work, and in 1838 merged into the Registrar-General’s returns. Graunt was a friend of Sir William Petty. Some authorities attribute authorship of the above work to Petty. In his A bibliography of Sir William Petty F.R.S. and of Observations on the bills of Mortality by John Graunt, F.R.S, (1971) Geoffrey Keynes traces the interrelationship of these authors.