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13
Causes of death.—The causes of death occurring
in the borough during 1923 will be found in Table II.
From this it will be seen that the principal causes were:
Cancer (212 deaths), heart disease (202 deaths), tuberculosis
(181 deaths), pneumonia (174 deaths), and
bronchitis (114 deaths).
It is a very interesting fact that these causes of
death appear this year in exactly the same order in
which they appeared last year, but there are certain
differences in the actual figures. Cancer still heads
the list of causes of death and, in fact, the actual
number of deaths caused by this disease has increased
during the past year by 8 as compared with 1922.
Heart disease shows an increase of 3 deaths, tuberculosis
a decrease of 15, pneumonia a decrease of 21
and bronchitis a decrease of 41. I devoted some
considerable space in my report last year to the problem
of cancer. This year the number of deaths from
this cause is the greatest ever recorded in the history
of the borough, the nearest being the figure of 210
deaths in 1921. The cancer death-rate in Fulham
for 1923 was 1 -3 per thousand of the population. The
leaflets on this disease first issued in 1922 by the
Public Health Committee have continued to be distributed
during the past year, and, in so far as they
tend to persuade persons suffering from suspicious
symptoms of this disease to obtain the earliest possible
medical attention they undoubtedly are of considerable
benefit. At the present time the Ministry of
Health is conducting, with the aid of various local
authorities, an investigation into the subject of cancer
of the breast, and I hope that I may be able to give
some interesting facts i my next Annual Report.
It is satisfactory that the death-rate from tuberculosis
continues to fall. As I pointed out in my
Annual Report for 1922, there has been a gradual
fall, amounting to over 25 per cent, in the past 19 years.
Undoubtedly much of this fall is due to the steady
work being done by the Tuberculosis Dispensary and
to the gradual improvement in the standard of living
of the working-classes during recent years.