and a copy of it in Cornell University Library bears the inscription "Ex dono Authoris Octob: 22º 1665." No further edition was published during Graunt's life, but in 1676 a fifth edition was put out, it is said under Petty's supervision[1]. To this, the completest edition, here reprinted, there were added "Some further Observations of Major John Graunt." Since 1676 the Observations have been printed but once in English, viz. in A Collection of the Yearly Bills of Mortality from 1657 to 1758, London: 1759, which speaks erroneously of "the sixth edition, in 1676." There is also an anonymous German translation[2] published at Leipzig in 1702.
Concerning the disputed authorship of the Observations see the Introduction. No MSS. of the book are known.
- ↑ Dr John Campbell in the Biographia Britannica, iv. 2262-2263, note. Dr Campbell's account of the earlier editions, however, is sadly incorrect.
- ↑ The translator was Dr Gottfried Schultz, born at Breslau 20 April, 1643, died there 14 May, 1698. Travel, says his eulogist, had made him master of many tongues, "non autem legisse tantum exterorum scripta ipsi sufficiebat, sed ut aliorum etiam usibus prostarent, multoties Interpretem accuratum egit. Cum vero modestia insignis, qua ubique usus, nomen praefigere versionibus typis divulgandis vetaret, tale saltem in praesenti versionis Specimen exhibeo, de quo (cum in aliis dubius hæram) certo constat, ejus solertiam illud parasse. Scilicet Joannis Grauntii, Membri Societatis Regiae Anglicanae, Observationes Physicas et Politicas de Schedulis Mortalitatis Londinensibus Todten-Zettuln Germanico Idiomate donavit, in gratiam eorum, qui propter commodum publicum passim in Germanicam similem computum desiderarunt."—Memoria excellentissimi apud Vratislavienses polyhistori medici domini D. Godofriedi Schulzii quam posteris commendat Samuel Grass, pp. 201–224 of the Appendix ad Ephemeridum academiæ Caesareo-leopoldinæ nat. curiosorum in Germania centurias iii. & iv., Noribergae, 1715.
