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Table B. shows the number of deaths due to various causes during
the past live years. Deaths from pulmonary tuberculosis have
somewhat increased in number, whereas deaths from pneumonia
and bronchitis show a decline. Thirty-four persons died as a
result of violence, due mainly to the growing volume of motor
traffic.
Cancer.—In 1926 cancer caused 143 deaths in Hornsey—
57 of male and 86 of female residents. For the past six years
the number of deaths occurring each year from this cause has
been more or less constant, but prior to 1921 there had been a
steady increase. The mortality from canccr has trebled itself in
Hornsey in the first quarter of this century, and now amounts to
a rate of 1.57 per 1,000 living, as compared with 1.33 for England
and Wales. It must be remembered that cancer is a disease
mainly of those who have reached the second half of their allotted
span, and in a Borough such as Hornsey all undue proportion of
elderly persons is to bo found. Indeed, the average age of
Hornsey residents is higher than that for any other town of
considerable size in Middlesex. Again the ratio of females to
males is almost the highest in the county, a fact of some importance
inasmuch as cancer occurs more commonly in women than
in men. While the ratio of females to males has not altered
materially for some time, the number of persons living in. the
Borough over the age of 45 years has increased considerably since
1901. In that year persons aged 45 years and upwards formed
18 per cent, of the total population, in 1911 the percentage had
risen to 23.4, and in 1921 it was 29.8. From these facts it will
be seen that Hornsey is a district upon which the incidence of
cancer is likely to fall more heavily than is the case in areas
where the age and sex distribution of the population is different.
But even if due allowance is made for these factors, it is evident
that in Hornsey, as elsewhere, cancer is becoming a more frequent
cause of death than formerly. This increase in cancer mortality
is the common experience of modern civilisation.
A great deal of research work has been, and still is being,
carried out on the causation and the treatment of cancer, and
the following facts are now established. Liability to the disease
is not an attribute of any particular social class, profession or