DEATHS AMONG TAXPAYERS AND NON-TAXPAYERS INCOME TAX, PROVIDENCE, 1865

y a s UMEROUS observations have shown that the {;, -, death rate among the well-to-do is generally lower R I 2 than among the poor. It has always seemed that a careful study of the details of this difference might throw considerable light on public health problems. ,5t,os AZ. I have long wished to make such an investigation in Providence, where I have been familiar with living conditions for many years. When the present income tax was levied, I hoped that data for such a study might become available, but, unfortunately, they have not. My son suggested that the necessary material was at hand for the year I865, for which the census and the income tax list are both available. The use of this material has involved a great deal of labor. The names of the income-taxpayers, something over ,ooo, were compared with the census returns and a card was made for each family, showing age, sex, and occupation for each person. About zoo of the taxpayers could not be found in the census. There was no record of the death of any of these. They were probably, for the most part, single men who had moved away. They are not included among the taxpayers, and any tendency which their omission might have would be to increase the apparent death rate in this group. The taxpayers and their families were tabulated by age groups and these groups, subtracted from the age groups of the whole population, give the data which, sufficiently accurately, represent the nontaxpaying element of the population. The original death returns were compared with the census names, and the deaths distributed into taxpayers and non-taxpayers. The deaths were then tabulated from the original returns according to the present revision of the international classification. I began the study of medicine under a preceptor in Providence in 1876, and was ac-