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the waiters may well die themselves. Our old people deserve more than
this from a prosperous society and their plight calls for every effort to be
made to ensure not merely their physical care but their continued happiness.
Population Statistics
It may be surprising that the population of the District continues to
fall, even although the decrease was small during 1962. This results from
several factors but among them is one reflecting on the complexity of
modern life in the greater conurbations—the difficulty of travel, which is
steadily increasing. Many people are trying to live nearer to their work
whilst others have decided that if travel they must, they might as well
make the journey worthwhile and move further from the centre to live in
more rural surroundings. This is leading to a drop in populations in
"outer ring" London communities such as Merton and Morden, Wimbledon
and Mitcham and an increase in populations of districts situated
further out, such as Sutton and Cheam and Epsom and Ewell and even
further afield.
Principal Causes of Death
The four principal causes of death bear out what is now generally
recognised, that cardiac conditions are the great killer followed, by
cancer. The great majority of deaths from cardiac conditions are attributable
to coronary artery disease, which is on the increase all over the
world, but more markedly in highly developed societies. This appears to
be a true disease of civilization, the more highly organised the society the
greater is the stress and strain on its human components and the result is
more coronary thrombosis. Regrettably, also, the disease is occurring
increasingly in younger age groups. Some years ago it was a disease predominantly
of the sixties. Now, however, it is not a cause for surprise to
encounter death from coronary thrombosis even before the forty-fifth
birthday. There is a definite need for more research to give us a fuller
understanding of the etiology of this condition so that preventive measures
can be taken. Meanwhile this adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's "If" gives
food for thought:—
"If you can fill the unforgiving minute
with sixty seconds-worth of distance run
Yours is the world and everything that's in it
And a coronary before you're fifty-one"
The continuing increase of deaths from carcinoma of the lung and
bronchus gives great cause for concern and the District Council has cooperated
with Surrey County Council in a campaign to alert teenagers to
the believed relationship which has been demonstrated between cigarette
smoking and this condition. I do not think, however, that the cigarette is
more than a precipitating cause. It is my belief that in the fullness of time
it will be found that there is something much more fundamental at the
root of cancer in any site, which determines why, of two persons with
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