View report page

58
risk of such infestation, particularly in regard to new occupations of municipal
dwellings, arrangements have been made for furniture disinfestation by the
hydrocyanic gas method. This has been made practicable by an agreement with
the Council of the Royal Borough of Kensington. The procedure is that the
infested furniture is removed in the morning in a special type van and after disinfestation
is delivered in the evening of the same day at the new home. The
bedding is collected by the Council's staff treated in the steam disinfector and
delivered at the new home at approximately the same time as the furniture.
Cancer.
During the year 1936, 67 deaths were recorded as due to Cancer in comparison
with 58 in the previous year. The deaths in 1936 were equal to a rate of 1.93 per
thousand, the corresponding rate in 1935 being 1.64 per thousand.
It will be seen that the death rate from Cancer in the Borough in 1936 was
0.29 per thousand higher than in the previous year. The rate, however, for one year
in districts of comparatively small populations does not furnish a reliable indication
of the prevalence of a particular disease. The decennial rates, which afford much
more reliable indication of the seriousness of Cancer, show that in the past 20 years
there has apparently been a marked increase in the death rate from this disease,
for while the decennial average for the ten years, 1917-1926 was 1.41 the corresponding rate
for the ten years, 1927-1936 was 1.71. Some part of this increase may reasonably be attributed
to improved facilities for diagnosis, and can also be correlated with the age-distribution
of the population.