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52
Jication (4). Of the 95 deaths attributed to cancer, 73 occurred in
the Town and 22 in Brompton. This disease appears to be on the
increase : the deaths registered in the previous five years respectively
•were 67, 74, 69, 88, and 79. It should be explained that the deaths
of all persons who have suffered from cancer, in any form, are classified
to that disease, irrespective of any other disease they may have
had, and of the question whether death was immediately due to
cancer. The majority of the deaths from cancer occur in advanced
life, the disease being most prevalent in the aged, having regard to the
number of persons living in groups of ages. Last year, cancer
appeared first, as a cause of death, in the decenniad 25—35, the
number of deaths being three. In the next ten years, 35—45, there
were 12 deaths; between 45 and 55, 15 deaths; between 55 and 65,
32 deaths; between 65 and 75, 21 deaths; between 75 and 85, 11
deaths; and between 85 and 95, one death. The parts of the body
most commonly affected are the viscera or internal organs, and very
frequently in women, the uterus and the breast. The deaths in the
four quarters, were 23, 25, 23 and 24 respectively.
Order 2. Tubercular.— The diseases included in this order are
among the most important with which sanitarians have to deal, and
the degree to which they prevail, may be regarded in some sort as a test
of the healthiness or otherwise of a population. Generally of a
hereditary character, these diseases are nevertheless susceptible of
considerable amelioration, if not, like some others, of ultimate extirpation
under improved hygienic conditions. Scrofula is unknown in
Hygieapolis ! Abundance of sunlight and pure air ; efficient drainage
and its corollary, a dry soil; good food, warm clothing, and temperance
in all things are powerful antidotes to the bane of tubercle ; which
is fostered by the opposites— by filth and squalor, by cold and nakedness,
by vice and intemperance, by the want of the proper necessaries
of life, by overcrowding in ill-constructed, unventilated and sewagetainted
houses; and, in a word, by whatever is inimical to the
preservation of a typical condition of health. The cases that occur
in the well-to-do classes of society are usually traceable to the
influence of heredity. The diseases in this order were the registered
causes of 499 deaths, viz.:— 412 in the Town sub-district, and 87 in
Brompton ; 188 of the deaths being of children under 5 years of age.