Essai sur la différence du nombre des hommes dans les tems anciens et modernes

First French edition, translated by Joncourt.

Later binding ca. 1790 in full blonde sheep with raised grain. Smooth spine decorated with 5 fleurons. Black sheep title label. Some rubbing. 2 corners slightly bumped. Good copy.
Manuscript gift inscription: "J'appartiens à Collins d'Anglus au collège à Mazarin à Paris, 1770."
Work presented to the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh and published as a response to Hume's essay on population. Based on computational hypotheses about births and deaths, the author establishes approximate population figures from the biblical primitive couple through Antiquity. Drawing from known sources and historians, Wallace seeks to establish Jewish, Egyptian... populations and concludes that demographics were more significant in Antiquity. An interesting and curious essay, which forms one of the first major speculations on world population evolution, and which would influence Malthus and demographic studies in France.