688 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ENGLISH EXPERIENCE WITH CANCER. 



By H. PEECY DUNN, F. E. C. S. 



THERE is reason for the frequent inquiry which meets the ears of 

 medical men in the present day, Is it not true that cancer is in- 

 creasing? For, however much we may attempt to throw into the 

 shade our convictions upon this matter, the records of the Registrar- 

 General remain to show, in all the obtrusiveness of an unvarnished 

 statement, the annual increasing mortality from this terrible disease. 

 A reference to the forty-third annual report of the Registrar-General 

 discloses a somewhat alarming state of things, in connection with which 

 it must be conceded that reflection affords but little assistance in the 

 attempt to solve the cause. According to the report, 80,049 deaths 

 from cancer occurred during the ten years from 1860-'69 inclusive, 

 and the annual average increase was 248. During the years 18T0-'79 

 the total number of deaths from cancer was 111,301, and the annual 

 average increase was 320. As far, therefore, as numbers are capable 

 of showing, we have here conclusive evidence of the increment in the 

 mortality from cancer. It is observable also that the rate of increase 

 is much higher in the latter than in the first ten years. It is, more- 

 over, the case that the annual rate of increase is higher in the years 

 1860-'69 than in the preceding decennium — namely, in the years 1850- 

 '59. In short, in the years 1850-'59 the increment was about 2,000 ; 

 in 18G0-'69, 2,400 ; in 1870-'79, 3,200. We have then confessedly to 

 face the fact that cancer is increasing in our midst at a rate which bids 

 fair to become more and more serious with the advance of time. In 

 an article entitled "An Inquiry into the Causes of the Increase of 

 Cancer," published in the " British Medical Journal " a year ago, I 

 drew attention to the observations which had been made upon the sub- 

 ject by the late Charles Moore, whose investigations into the pathology 

 of cancer had brought under his notice the incontrovertible evidence 

 of the increase of the disease. In the year 1865 he published a small 

 book called the " Antecedents of Cancer," the contents of which chiefly 

 consist in an attempt to explain in what manner the augmentation of 

 cancer is influenced by the circumstances of life prevailing in this 

 country. For instance, he held that the introduction of corn laws, the 

 discoveries of gold and sanitary improvements, whereby the well-being 

 of the nation was conspicuously established, affected cancer indirectly 

 by bringing into prominence the predisposing causes of its occur- 

 rence ; and good living, it is thought, which follows as a corollary of 

 commercial prosperity, is intimately associated with the manifestation 

 of cancer. Again, inasmuch as cancer is characteristic of the healthy, 

 it maybe expected to abound amid the conditions of health. The 

 greater prevalence of the disease among the rich than among the poor 

 can probably be explained in this manner. According to a French 

 observer, the proportion of cancer in the wealthy classes is about 106 



