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a SCIENCE WRITERS (ROBOTYPED WITH AUTOPEN SIGNATURE) THE TOBACCO [NS?`ITUTE, INC. 1776 K STREET. NORTHWEST WASHINGTON. D. C. 20006 2a6-8434 Wlu.uy KLOCrPM JR. 8[N=OR VICt hl[f=OZNT Not too long ago we ran into a discourse in Medical Counterpoint called "The intellectual Morbidity of Vital Statistics." it was by Dr. Alvan R. Feinstein, professor of epidemiology and of -internal medicine at Yale, and it concerned what he called "egre- giously defective statistics" and the erroneous conclusions he said can be drawn from them. The subject so fascinated us that we began our own literature review of the subject. The result, enclosed, may be a good reference file item for you--or even a take-off point for a feature. In any event, it's easy to see why Feinstein, a former newsman and now doctor-statistician, warned in his treatise:' Unless a more sensible approach is developed for collecting and analyzing the medical information contained on death certificates, future historians of medicine may regard our era as a time in which magnificent technology was applied with intellectual morbidity to produce the fallacious mortality data of "vital statistics.=" We look forward to any question or comment you may have. Sincerely, William Kloepfer, Jr. njp TIMN 0078608 enc • T 0022122