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The obituary columns of the BMJ have become more informative since editorial policy tried to encompass all medical deaths early in 1995. Our impression was that the new columns showed that doctors born in the Indian subcontinent died earlier than those born in the United Kingdom. We tested this impression in a systematic analysis. We reviewed 572 obituaries in the BMJ from April 1995 to December 1995 and in the issue of 6 April 1996 for the doctor's age, country of birth, and specialty. Age at death was recorded in whole years, and the significance of the differences in means assessed using Student's t test. No correction for continuity was applied to take account of the month of death. To increase the size of groups for comparison, countries of origin and specialties were grouped as in …