Parish record and population history.

Human demography and disease Susan Scott & Christopher Duncan Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1998 Ppxv+354, [pounds]50/$74.95, ISBN 0521 62052 X

Perusing the gravestones in a country churchyard may lead us to ponder the domestic tragedies behind the inscriptions on the moss-covered memorials, so often to the very young. We might also speculate on how such information could be used to study population dynamics, particularly when total population numbers are uncertain.

In 'Human demography and disease', Susan Scott and Christopher Duncan reveal how historical links between poverty, malnutrition and disease may be elucidated using information from parish registers of baptism, marriage and death, Bills of Mortality, and historical records of temperature and commodity prices, together with knowledge of contemporary agriculture and economics. I found the comparisons with today's developing world particularly interesting.

The story starts in the 16th century in Northwest …