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

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Woolwich 1915

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Woolwich]

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59
non-cancer cases all the smokers smoked pipes (29 clay and
19 briar, and 3 both), except one, who smoked cigarettes.
Of 134 cases with cancer of other parts than the mouth and
throat, 34 (or 24 per cent.) took alcohol excessively, and 31
(or 22 per cent.) smoked excessively. It would appear, then,
that both alcohol and smoking (especially alcohol) have some
general effect in promoting cancer, but chiefly exert their
injurious influence locally.
Of the 64 cases of cancer of the mouth and throat, 18 (or
28 per cent.) were excessive tea drinkers. Tea drinking
does not seem to be specially injurious locally or generally
as far as cancer is concerned. If the injurious effect of
smoking were chiefly due to the local effect of heat one would
have expected excessive drinking of hot tea to have had a
similar bad result.

The following table gives the above results in tabular form:

All Cancer Cases.Cancer of Mouth and Throat.Cancer of other Parts.Control Cases (Non-Cancer).
Per cent.Per cent.Per cent.Per cent.
Excessive alcohol drinkers32462414
,, smokers41752216
,, tea drinkers31283431
Large eaters4449
,, meat eaters3129
Constipation2517

42 cases had cancer of the stomach. Of these, 15 (or 35
per cent.) drank excessively, 16 (or 38 per cent.) were large
eaters, and 11 (or 26 per cent.) were large meat eaters.
As regards cancer of the bowels, out of 46 persons dying
from cancer of the intestines, 25 had a regular daily action,
20 had constipation, and 1 was not quite regular—i.e., 43
per cent had constipation. Thus constipation seems to preispose
to cancer of the bowels.