Caspar Neumann

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Caspar Neumann (*14 Sep. 1648 in Breslau, d. 27 Jan. 1715) was Professor and Clergyman in Breslau with a special interest in mortality rates (*1648, †1715).

[edit] Biography

The later clergyman made first an apprenticeship as a pharmacist. He finished his higher school education at Breslau's Maria-Magdalen grammar school. In 1667 he became a student of theology at the university of Jena, eventually he was ordinated priest. A journey through Germany and Switzerland followed, Neumann travelled as companion and tutor of the heredetary princes of duke Ernst the Pious. Back home he became a court-chaplain at Altenburg, and married the daughter of J. J. Rabe, physician in ordinary to the prince of Sachsen-Friedenstein. In 1678 he became the deacon of St. Maria-Magdalen in Breslau. In 1680 he published his prayer-book under the title Kern aller Gebete in Jena. In 1689 he became vicar of St. Maria Magdalen, Breslau. His observations on the city's mortality rates resulted in the treatise “Reflexiones über Leben und Tod bey denen in Breslau Geborenen und Gestorbenen” which he finally sent to Leibnitz – the covering letter is documented, the text itself is lost. Leibnitz seems to have informed the Royal Society of Neumann's work. The society's secretary Henry Justell (*1620, †1693) invited Neumann in 1691 to provide the Society with the data he had collected. Neumann's mail is lost, Edmond Halley's computations digesting Neumann's data have, however, survived – published in the Transactions of the Royal Society of 1693. In 1697 Neumann was appointed inspector of the Protestant schools and churches of Breslau. He eventually became vicar of St. Elisabeth and professor of theology at both the city's grammar schools. Neumann influenced Johann Christian Kundmann (1684-1751), who later published the first German comparative study of mortality rates in the Sammlung von Natur- Medizin- sowie auch dazu gehörigen Kunst- und Litteraturgeschichten (1718) ff.

[edit] External links

• Edmond Halley, An Estimate of the Degrees of the Mortality of Mankind (1693), based on Neumann's data.

[edit] Literature

• Grätzer, J. Edmond Halley und Caspar Neumann. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Bevölkerungsstatistik (Breslau, 1883).

• Schimmelpfennnig, K. A., "Kaspar Neumann (1648-1715)", in ADB, 23 (1886).

• Lischke, Ralph-Jürgen, Caspar Neumann (1648-1715). Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Sterbetafeln, ed. Institut für Angewandte Demographie GmbH (Berlin, 1998).