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12
Causes of Death.—The causes of deaths occurring
in the Borough during 1924 will be found in Table II,
pp. 13, 14. From this, it will be seen that the principal
causes were cancer (221 deaths); pneumonia (189
deaths); tuberculosis (162 deaths); bronchitis (156
deaths). In my annual report for 1923 I stated that
these causes of death Lad appeared in exactly the same
order for two years. Again they appear in almost the
same order, the only difference being that pneumonia
takes precedence over tuberculosis as a cause of death.
It will be noticed that cancer still heads the list, and in
fact the actual number of deaths from this disease has
increased during the past year by 9 as compared with
1923. As there was an increase of 8 as between 1922
and 1923, it would appear that cancer is still gaining
ground as a cause of death. Heart disease shows an
increase of 19 deaths; pneumonia an increase of 15
deaths; tuberculosis a decrease of 19 deaths; and
bronchitis an increase of 42 deaths.
I have dealt in my last two annual reports with the
question of cancer as a cause of death, and it is again
my unpleasant duty to record the fact that more
deaths took place from this disease in Fulham during
1924 than have ever taken place in any single year
since records have been kept. The cancer death rate
for Fulham was 1.35 per thousand population as compared
with a rate of 1.3 per 1,000 for the year 1923.
The Ministry of Health has recently set up a Departmental
Committee to enquire into this subject of cancer,
and this Committee has published four valuable contributions
to our knowledge of this disease. The first
(Circular No. 426) deals with the characteristic features
and natural course of cancer. It points out that in a
population of 37,885,242 persons in England and Wales
in 1921, a total number of 46,022 deaths were attributed
to cancer. These figures imply that out of each
average 1,000,000 persons, 1,215, and out of each
1,000, 1.21 died of cancer. The death rate per 1,000
of the population attributed to cancer in England and
Wales has gradually increased from 0.32 in 1851-60
to 1.21 in 1921.