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It is seen from the two tables that Cancer affects the
mouth, tongue, pharynx, oesophagus, and larynx of men,
much more than similar organs of females, and to a small
extent men have more Cancer of the stomach than women.
Cancer of the rectum, however, is more frequent in women.
The increase of Cancer in recent years has been attributed
to the excessive use of various articles of diet, e.g.,
alcohol, tea, coffee, and meat. That alcohol is a predisposing
cause of Cancer, acting probably as an irritant to
the digestive organs, seems to be well established. With a
view to seeing if diet greatly influences the mortality from
Cancer, I have compared the deaths from Cancer of persons
over 25 years dying in the Infirmary, with those dying from
this disease of similar age outside, with the result that there
is no evidence that the restricted diet of the Workhouse and
Infirmary greatly affects the Cancer death-rate.
Alcoholism.
88. There were 7 deaths from Alcoholism, and 16 from
Cirrhosis of the Liver, making a total of 23 deaths probably
due to alcohol, compared with 24, 17, 18, 21, and 20, in
the five preceding years. In addition to these there were
343 deaths from diseases of the brain and nervous system
(excluding meningitis) heart, blood vessels, and kidneys,
of which a large proportion was certainly caused directly
or indirectly by alcohol. The deaths from these causes
in the five preceding years were 336, 347, 327, 346, and
335, respectively.
89. The death-rate from alcoholism and Cirrhosis of the
Liver was 0.18 in the Borough, and 0.16 in the County
of London. There is one licensed house per 658 population