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80
Comparing the first period with the last, there
has been an increase in the annual number of deaths
attributed to "cancer" amounting to 102.4 per cent.,
whilst the increase in the population at ages above 25
as enumerated in 1891, compared with the census of
1861, amounted to 58.7 per cent. There can be no
hesitation, therefore, in saying that there has been a
considerable increase in the number of deaths registered
as due to "cancer," but this does not necessarily
imply that there has been an increase in the actual
prevalence of the disease. There are good reasons for
holding that much of the increase is due to greater
accuracy both in diagnosis, and death certification.
Antiseptic, or rather a-septic, surgery enables exploratory
operations to be undertaken more frequently,
so that cases which aforetimes would have been
registered as "tumour," "dropsy," and the like, are
now diagnosed as one or other of the forms of
cancer. The extent to which such improvements
in diagnosis and certification are responsible for
the apparent increase in "cancer" can only be
determined by a careful comparison of the recorded
deaths for a long period of years. This work is in
hand, and the results will be dealt with on a future
occasion. It may be here added that there is another
possible factor in the apparent increase. The reduced
mortality among children and young adults involves
the carrying over of number of lives which have