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Transactions. — Miscellaneous . 



Table II. — Average Yearly Number of Deaths from Cancer per 

 10,000 of Population of each Sex of various Age-periods. 



The results given in this table for ages 30 and over, and 

 for the first and last of the four periods considered, are illus- 

 trated graphically in Plate III. For ages under 30 the num- 

 bers of cases are too small to give fair averages. 



The figures of this table show that from 30 to 60 years 

 of age females are more subject to the disease than males ; 

 indeed, between the ages of 30 and 50 the chance of dying of 

 cancer is about double in the case of the female of what it is 

 in the male, but after the age of 60 there is an opposite 

 tendency, though one not so marked. 



In this table, it may be further noted, the results for ages 

 up to 30 years indicate how small is the chance of death 

 from cancer at those ages compared with subsequent ages, 

 but are otherwise of little service, the number of deaths being 

 too small to give a fair average. 



From the age of 40 in males and 35 in females the number 

 of deaths from cancer is considerable for each age-period, and 

 is generally the greater the greater the age, with the excep- 

 tion that, after the age 80 years, there appears to be a falling- 

 off in liability to death from this complaiut. 



Thus cancer is eminently a disease associated with degene- 

 ration, and most commonly afflicts the aged. Consequently 

 much of what has been said with respect to insanity will 

 apply to cancer, and we are thus prepared to find that much 

 of the apparent increase in cancer is due really to a relative 



