( 7 )
which was further elaborated in 1747 by the addition of hour glasses. These features are seen in the accompanying reproduction of the Bill for the year 1801.
Despite their rudimentary character, the Bills of Mortality were frequently the subject of investigation and analysis during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The earliest work of this nature is that by Captain John Graunt, entitled "Natural and Political Observations made upon the Bills of Mortality," first published in 1661, and subsequently much enlarged by Sir William Petty. This singularly interesting volume is the first instance of the application of statistical methods to the phenomena of human society. Its merits were immediately recognized, and the Royal Society promptly elected the author a Fellow, and bore the expense of printing and publishing his book.
Captain Graunt gives the following account of the manner in which the Bills were compiled:
"When any one dies, then either by tolling, or ringing of a Bell, or by beſpeaking of a Grave of the Sexton, the same is known to the Searchers correſponding with the ſaid Sexton.
"The Searchers hereupon (who are ancient Matrons ſworn to their Office) repair to the place where the dead Corps lies, and by view of the ſame, and by other enquiries, they examine by what Diſeaſe or Caſualty the Corps died. Hereupon they make their Report to the Pariſh Clerk, and he every Tuesday night, carries in an Accompt of all the Burials and Chriſtnings happening that Week to the Clerk of the Hall. On Wednesday the general Accompt is made up and printed, and on Thurſday publifhed and diſperſed to the ſeveral Families who will pay four Shillings per annum for them":
A further picture of the searchers is afforded by the regulations issued by the Lord Mayor in 1666 to stay the progress of the plague, and quoted by De Foe in his "Journal of the Plague Year":
"That there be a special care to appoint women searchers in every parish such as are of honest reputation, and of the best sort as can be got in this kind; and these to be sworn to make due search and true report to the utmost of their knowledge whether the persons
