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1929
23
may be reproduced. When Influenza is epidemic, the public should
obey the ordinary rules of hygiene. The work of the world must
be carried on and workers cannot always avoid crowds or association
with those suffering from coughs and colds. They will be
doing their duty to themselves and to their fellows in epidemic
periods if they shun their risks as much as possible by refusing to
go to crowded evening assemblies and by declining to pay unnecessary
visits to sick friends. Persons who practise the rules of
health, keep themselves fit and take all possible care to avoid
"droplet" infection from mouth or nose are likely to preserve
resisting powers which, if they do not carry them unscathed throughout
the epidemic, will moderate the intensity of their symptoms and
the liability to pulmonary complications if the disease is eventually
contracted.
Cancer.—There is a slight increase in the number of deaths
from cancer, and in two successive years the number of deaths in
each year has exceeded a hundred. It is known that in most civilised
countries, the crude recorded cancer mortality is rising. At
the present time it is highest in some of the smaller European
countries-—Denmark, Holland and England, but in Switzerland,
which has one of the highest cancer mortalities, the rate has been
stationary for forty years past.
But although the crude death-rate from Cancer is rising
there are many falacies in such a statement. The recorded rise in
cancer mortality has been increasingly greater at the later age
periods. There is no increase below 30 years of age. During the
past decade the age at death has risen considerably, and increasing
longevity, especially an increase in the later age periods, will
cause a marked rise in apparent cancer mortality. A longer span
of life means a greater chance of dying of cancer. No comparative
statistics of cancer are therefore of value, which do not
eliminate differences of age composition of the populations by
giving specific death-rates at the different age periods. At the last
census the age constitution of the population of Acton differed considerably
from that of the previous one and the change in continually
in operation. Out of 106 deaths which occurred last year 35
were in persons between 45 and 65 years of age, and 61 in
persons over 65 years of age Of the deaths over 65 years of
age from Malignant Disease, 21 were between 65 and 70 years, 21
between 70 and 75, 13 between 75 and SO, 2 between 80 and 85,
2 between 85 and 90, and 2 between 90 and 95 years of age. It is
at these higher ages, that the increase in deaths from Cancer has
occurred.
Another factor which has to be taken into consideration is
the situation of the growth. The improved methods of diagnosis