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In both sexes the most common seat of malignant tumours
was the digestive tract. The sex incidence of these tumours was
very similar, and the relative frequency in the two sexes of tumours
at different parts of the digestive tract was also similar. An
exception to this statement was constituted by tumours of the
pancreas, which accounted for the deaths of twice as many males
as of females. Of the males, 19.1 per cent. of the deaths from
malignant disease of the alimentary tract were of persons under 55
years of age, and of the females 15.8 per cent. Cancer of the
digestive tract tended, on the whole, to kill at a slightly earlier
age in males than in females.
Fatal malignant disease of the respiratory tract was approximately
three times as common in males than in females. Of the
31 male deaths, 11 occurred in men under the age of 55 years.
As a recorded cause of death in the prime of life, these conditions
are now of considerable importance. In females, all except 2 of
the 11 deaths were of women over 55 years of age.
In females, cancer of the breast accounted for the second
highest number of all cancer deaths. It should be noted that
almost half of these deaths were of women over 65 years of age.
Cancer of the uterus and of the other genital organs gave a combined
total which was equal to the number of deaths from cancer
of the breast. About a third of these deaths occurred in women
below the age of 55 years.
Of all the deaths from malignant disease, 335 were due to
carcinomata, 13 to sarcomata, and 19 to other forms of malignant
tumour, or tumours of undefined type.
TUBERCULOSIS.
The number of new cases of tuberculosis which came to the
notice of the department during 1937 was 407. Of these cases,
324 (182 males and 142 females) suffered from the pulmonary
form of the disease, and 83 cases (50 males and 33 females) from
the non-pulmonary forms. The case rate for all forms of tuberculosis
was 1.57 per 1,000 of the population. Further details of
the notifications are given in the section of this report devoted
to tuberculosis.
During the year the number of deaths ascribed by
the Registrar-General to all forms of tuberculosis was 227, of
which 138 were deaths of males and 89 of females. The number
110