ABSTRACT
The study of population is the only branch of social research with its own logical technique for the detection and co-ordination of factual data. This is not surprising when we recall the circumstances of its origin. The men who brought it into being were actively associated with the group which laid the foundations of the British empirical tradition of naturalistic inquiry. Some little-known information about the three founders of British demography—Graunt, Petty, and Hailey—is given in a later chapter by Dr. Kuczynski. The social context which brought them together is a theme worthy of more comment. A brief account of their relations to the intellectual life of their time suggests a fitting introduction to the investigations which follow.
