ABSTRACT
This was probably the first time data of this kind had been published and it was highly influential in the future production of actuarial tables for life insurance. Daniel Bernoulli (1700-1782) also spent some time studying the mortality of man. He is known to have analyzed the effectiveness of inoculation against smallpox, reaching the conclusion that the number of people who died as a result of the treatment was in fact smaller than the number who would otherwise have died. Bernoulli’s greatest achievements, however, were in the field of hydrodynamics, and one of the most famous results in this field bears his name (Bernoulli’s law). Together with Leonard Euler (1707-1783) (who is regarded as the greatest Swiss mathematician of all time), Bernoulli focussed significant attention on the relationship between the speed at which the blood flows and the pressure. His work ultimately led to a device to record blood pressure, albeit rather painfully, and soon physicians all over Europe were sticking point-ended glass tubes directly into patient’s arteries.
