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9
For nephritis the death-rate in 1953 amounted to 0.10 per 1,000, compared with 0.11 Nephritis
in 1952, and an average of 0.36 over the years 1931-40.
If, as an indication of mortality from degenerative diseases, heart disease, other Degenerative
circulatory diseases, cerebral vascular lesions, nephritis and bronchitis are combined, the diseases
following trend becomes apparent :

The true effects of the war cannot be separated from the statistical influences
described in the footnote on page 8. The rates in post-war years appear to be running
higher than pre-war. Degenerative diseases thus continue to be of greater relative
importance, and while over recent years the rates have fallen, so have the total death
rates—thus the degenerative diseases continue to be responsible for over half the death
rate.
The cancer death-rate for all ages in 1953 was 2.34 per 1,000, slightly higher than in Cancer
1952.
The death-rate from cancer, which is largely a disease of the latter half of life, can be
substantially changed by variations in the age constitution of the population. Some form
of standardisation of the crude rate is, therefore, essential for true comparative purposes.

Up to 1952, for England and Wales, the comparative mortality index for females
had fallen to 0.94 (1938 = 1.00), while the male index had risen to 1.13.
In London, for both sexes combined, the long-term trend of cancer mortality can be
seen from Table 3 (page 146). The increase there shown between 1891 and 1940 is due
partly to the increasing age of the population and partly to improved diagnosis, but
some part is doubtless attributable to increased incidence, particularly cancer of the lung.
The small drop in the death-rate for males over 45 in 1952, which is the first decrease
for a considerable time, was accounted for by a decrease in the deaths registered as from
cancer of the digestive organs (International Classification numbers 150-159) ; in 1951
the death-rates from cancer of these sites in this age sex group were 3.04 per 1,000, while
in 1952 they were 2.81 per 1,000 but the increase in 1953 to 2.83 only partly accounts for
the total increase of 0.07 to 2.68.