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frequently been effected by early operation—i.e., that
patients have lived ten, fifteen, twenty or more years,
and died ultimately of some other disease. The
teaching of surgical statistics is clear. It is that the
results of early and complete operation justify not a
certain, but a highly favourable, prognosis."
The fourth memorandum (Circular 516) deals with
experimental cancer research, is of a highly technical
nature, and is hardly suitable for popular consumption.
Suffice it to say that, so far as experimental work has
gone, according to this memorandum no definite conclusion
has been come to as to the causal agent in
malignant disease.
It is most satisfactory that such an able Committee,
consisting as it does of some of the leading
authorities on cancer, and of several highly qualified
members of the medical staff of the Ministry of Health,
should be devoting attention to this problem and at the
same time keeping the most recent work on this subject
before the attention of those of us who are directly
or indirectly engaged in fighting this scourge.
Again, this year it is pleasing to record a fall in the
death rate from tuberculosis. The death rate from
tuberculosis of the respiratory system for 1924 was
0.80 per 1,000 population, for disseminated tuberculosis
0.05, and for tuberculosis of other organs 0.14. This
subject is dealt with in detail under the heading of
tuberculosis on page 43.
Infantile Mortality.—Of 1,820 deaths during 1924,
214, or 1.2 per cent., were of infants under one year
of age, and the rate of infantile mortality measured
by the proportion of deaths under one year of age to
registered births was 72 per thousand, being 8 per
thousand above that for 1923 and 3 per thousand
above that for 1922. This rise in the infantile mortality
rate appears to have been general throughout
the country during the year under review, and in my
opinion a considerable amount of this mortality must
be attributed to the extraordinarily long period of wet
weather which we had during the year. With the
exception of a short period about June there was