London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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London County Council 1907

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for London County Council]

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Age.period.0.5.10.15.20.25.35.45.55.65.75.85 and upwardsA11 ages.
Stoke Newington——-281154131
Hackney-1262026265-86
Holborn-65314
Finsbury----1-7866-28
London, City of---231118
Shoreditch---6131394146
Bethnal Green•—-15916145--50
Stepney-——-3151819196181
mk Wr Poplar--11113653-30
Southwark--18813155-50
Bermondsey-124851-21
Lambeth----721272113190
Battersea--141618224166
Wandsworth-4925333716-124
Camberwell-1-210134024125107
Deptford---117551-20
Greenwich-.—112575425
Lewisham---2610136-37
Woolwich--7715145-48
London-1-1431141319486434163181598

The following table shows the proportional age.distribution of the deaths in London during
1907 (365 days) classified under the three headings—

Cancer—.Deaths1 at each age.period per 1,000 deaths at All Ages—1907 (365 days).

Age.period.All ages.Under 35.35.45.55.65.75.85 and upwards.
Sarcoma1,00036613014517212760
Carcinoma1,000261002222902489816
Cancer1,000238820030427210211
Total1,00046972102882499713

In the report for the year 1906, a table was included showing the cancer death.rates in the
period 1901.6 in areas presenting different degrees of overcrowding,2 the object being to compare the
death.rates of population differently circumstanced in respect of social condition.
The following table shows the corresponding death.rates for the period 1901.7:—
London, 1901.7.

Cancer death.rates1 in relation to overcrowding.

Percentage of overcrowding in each group of sanitary areas.Crude cancer death.rate per 1,000 persons living.Standard death. rate.1Factor for correction for age and sex distribution.Corrected death.rate per 1,000 persons living.Corrected death.rate (London, 1,000).
Under 7.5 per cent.0.9300.8830.990030.921988
7.5 to 12.5 per cent.0.9230.8641.011800.9341,002
12.5 to 20 per cent.0.9750.9210949190.925992
20. to 27.5 per cent.0.9990.9040.967040.9661,036
Over 27.5 per cent.0.8100.7741.129460.915982
London0.9320.8741 .000000.9321,000

The figures shown in the table appear to indicate that there is no relation between cancer mortality
and social condition, as judged by overcrowding, and in this respect the behaviour of cancer
differs altogether from that of phthisis (see page 49).
Dr. G. B. Longstaff has raised question whether the difference between the two sexes in the
frequency with which cancer attacks the throat may be due to differences in the habit of the two sexes
in respect to smoking, the male being more frequently attacked in that locality than the female. Dr.
Bashford has stated in a recent report of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund that cancer of the skin
of the abdomen is practically unknown in Europe, but is frequent in Kashmir, and that the natives of
Kashmir irritate the abdominal wall by wearing a charcoal oven round the waist. Again, in Europe,
he states, cancer of the floor of the mouth is rare in women. In Ceylon and India women suffer from
cancer of the side of the mouth, and this is due to the fact that women chew betel nut and sleep with
the plug in the cheek at the exact spot where cancer starts.
See footnote (1). page 8.
2 See footnote (1), page 19.
3 See footnote (1), page 47