92 ON THE PREVALENCE OF CANCER IN AUSTRALASIA. 



already in existence when the child is born and then rapidly 

 terminate fatally. 



I purposely refrained from quoting many figures to avoid 

 wearisome description. All the details are better illustrated by 

 the accompanying diagrams, which exhibit the prevalence of 

 cancer among divisions, each of which embraces five years up 

 to 80 years of age. 



Sex. 



It has already, in a previous paper, been mentioned that 

 males and females are not in an equal degree liable to malignant 

 new growths. Going more fully into the subject we may state, 

 as the result of our investigations, the following facts. 



Let us first turn to Victoria, which with its ample material 

 of nearly 10,000 cases of cancer deserves the greatest attention. 



1. Within the space of 31 years, extending from 1861 to 

 1891, 5,190 males and 4,710 females, together 9,900 persons, 

 died of cancer. 



2. Computed per 100,000 living, the average mortality of 

 cancer was, during this time, 86 men and 88 women. 



3. The increase of deaths from cancer has been more rapid 

 among males than females. It increased more than 7 times 

 among men and not yet 3 times among women. It is, of course, 

 understood that all these numbers do not refer to the actual 

 population, but are all computed per 100,000 living, so that it is 

 possible to institute comparisons independent of the fluctuation 

 of the population. 



4. In proportion to 1000 cases of death, cancer is respon. 

 sible for 26 deaths of males (25-8) and 81 of females (30-8). To 

 avoid the complicating influence of the great fluctuations of 

 infantile mortality we took, in another table, into consideration 

 only the deaths above 5 years of age, and found the proportion 

 then 41 (40-6) per 1000 deaths of males and 54 (53-7) per 1000 

 deaths of females. 



We, therefore, see that women show a greater liability to 

 malignant tumours than men. There the objection may be 

 raised that the greater liability of women is only apparent, this 

 being due to the fact that cancer in females is generally situated 

 in organs which are more easily accessible to the correct 



