Classifying causes of death during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: the case of German infant mortality.

Methodological problems concerning the study of cause of death in historical populations are examined using data from nineteenth-century Germany. The main concern is how to reconcile data when different cause of death classifications were used by state and national statistical offices either simultaneously or sequentially. The unified scheme proposed is based on broad cause of death groups developed by Samuel H. Preston which are distinct and mutually exclusive on epidemiological grounds. (ANNOTATION)