Mémoire sur la proportion des naissances des filles et des garcons / Par M. Poisson. Lu a l'Académie, le 8 février 1829.

POISSON, Siméon Denis

Published by Didot, Paris, 1829

About this Item

4to (270x207 mm). [2], [1] 2-70 pp. 20th-c marbled paper boards, gilt morocco lettering piece to spine, text foxed (first and last pages stronger), first page folded in at lower margin. Provenance: Sylvestre Francois Lacroix (1765-1843), French mathematician. Dedication by Poisson in black ink to title page "A Monsieur Lacroix de la part de l'auteur" and a few annotations in black ink by Lacroix. ---- Impossibly rare offprint of Poissons important treatise on population statistics which was published in vol. 9 of the Memoires de l'Academie Royale des Sciences de l'Institut de France, 1830. Poisson here reformulates Laplace's analysis of the error dispersion for distribution of the sexes at birth. Poisson gave a reading of his paper before an assembly of the Academy. With this and two other papers by Poisson published in 1835 and 1837, the mathematician rescued the analytical theory of probabilities from the singularity of its first Laplacian expression. They led Poisson to what he called the "law of large numbers" (E.Brian & M.Jaisson, The Descent of Human Sex Ratio at Birth, 2007, pp.44-50). Only two copies of this offprint recorded in COPAC and WorldCat (Ushaw College, Durham and Berlin State Library).

Seller Inventory # 001974

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Mémoire sur la proportion des naissances des filles et des garcons / Par M. Poisson. Lu a l'Académie, le 8 février 1829.
• Publisher: Didot, Paris
• Publication Date: 1829
• Language: French
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Very Good
• Weight: 1 kilogram
• Signed: Inscribed by Author(s)
• Seller catalogs:
  • Mathematics