DEPARCIEUX Antoine Essai sur les probabilités de la durée de la vie humaine.

INED, 169; Einaudi, 1521; Goldsmiths, 8233; Kress, 4801; DSB, IV, 38-39.

First edition of this important statistical treatise, the first French work on statistics and the calculation of probabilities in insurance and prevention. A supplement was published in 1760.

Antoine Deparcieux (1703-1768) began his studies at the Jesuit college in Alès and moved to Paris in 1730, where he became a sundial builder. With his lively mind, he became interested in hydraulics and designed a project to bring water from the River Yvette to Paris; this project was carried out after his death. In 1746 he was admitted to the Académie des Sciences de Paris.

"After long investigations of tontines, individual families, and religious communities, Deparcieux published his results in the famous Essai sur les probabilités de la durée de la vie humaine, one of the first statistical works of its kind. it consists of treatises on annuities, mortality, and life annuities. Deparcieux showed a real progress in his theoretical explanation of the properties of the tables of mortality… His tables … were for a long time the only ones on life expectancies in France. He also made further inquiries on the concept of the mean life expectancy" (DSB).

Some foxing and a few yellowed leaves; scuffing, corners dulled and hinges partly split.