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11
A certain percentage of these deaths are preventable if
the beginning's of disease are attacked, and the individual
prepared to act upon the doctrines of health rather than to
wait for treatment of the established disease.
CANCER.—This disease at present is exercising the
minds of the press, the public, and the medical profession.
In Bromley, in this respect, we have the self-same problems
as the rest of England, except that our rate is a fraction
lower.
In Bromley, 16 males and 29 females died of cancer in
1925, equivalent to a rate of 1.2 per 1,000 of our population.
For the five years ending 1920 the rate was 1.3 per 1,000
population, and for the last five years 1.4. There are many
factors to be considered in this increase, not the least important
being the proportional increase in the older age
groups of the population, the period of life when cancer is
more liable to arise. The fact that cancer is more prevalent
among females, and the fact that since 1901 the female
population has increased at the expense of the male population
at the rate of 1 per 1,000 population, must also play
its part in this increasing rate.
Before we can undertake any steps to combat this, one
of our "Kings of Death," the public must be prepared to
undergo periodically and regularly routine and skilled
medical examination for the early discovery of signs and
symptoms of cancer, and be prepared on positive evidence
to undergo early surgical treatment. Our chances to abate
the disease in these circumstances are great, they will be
greater still when research has established the underlying
cause of cancer.