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17
Deaths from Suicide
About twenty persons living in this district commit suicide each year.
This last year the number was only sixteen, nine men and seven women.
Coal gas poisoning was as usual the most common method used, being
chosen by four men and three women. Poisoning came next, being the
method chosen by two men and three women. The other deaths were
caused one each by drowning, hanging and on the railway.
Four of these deaths took place in May; two in June and two in
November. There was one in each of the other months except October and
December. Four of these people were in their forties ; four in their fifties;
two in their sixties and three were over seventy. One man was only twentyeight
and one woman only thirty.
Deaths from Cancer
Of the 2,026 deaths of residents in this district, 493 were due to
cancer, this causing twenty-three per cent of the deaths of males and
twenty-one per cent of the deaths of females.
Of the 283 deaths from this cause amongst males, in 118 the site was
the lung, in 42 the stomach. Of the 210 deaths amongst females, the breast
was the site in 47, the stomach in 27, lung in 17 and the uterus in 22.
Cancer caused the death of 414 local residents in 1958. The next year
the number was 444. Of this increase of 30, 22 was because of the greater
number of deaths from cancer of the lung, an increase from 71 to 91 in
men ; from 11 to 13 in women. Of this further increase in deaths from
cancer reaching the figure of 493 last year, much again was due to disease
in the lung, there being 118 deaths amongst men as against the 91 of 1959
and 17 amongst women, an increase on the figure of 13 of the previous
year. More deaths in each sex were due to cancer of the stomach (42 and
27 as against figures of 25 and 21 in the previous year). There was a sharp
increase too in the number of deaths from cancer of the uterus, a figure of
22 against the 10 of 1959.
Cancer of the lung was the cause of death of one in nine of the men of
this district who died in this last year. Although the precise connection
between the incidence of this disease and smoking is not known, all the
figures point to heavy smoking being a causative factor. This then can
rank as a preventable disease, the remedy being in the hands of the
individual.
Deaths from Infectious Diseases
There were twelve deaths from tuberculosis and two from influenza.
There were none from measles, whooping cough or poliomyelitis.