214 Mr. G. King and Dr. A. Newsholme. 



similar particulars are given; but in each of these cases only one 

 period of time is investigated, and therefore, for present purposes, 

 their figures cannot be utilised. On two occasions the Australian 

 Mutual Provident Society, which is the largest life office in the 

 British dominions, has investigated its mortality experience, and on 

 each occasion has tabulated its cancer figures ; but, for various reasons 

 which we need not particularise, this information could not be 

 successfully utilised. 



The returns of the Scottish Widows' Fund, above mentioned, extend 

 over four septennia and a broken period of four years, making a 

 total period of thirty- two years during which it is possible to 

 minutely investigate the causes and progressive rates of mortality. 

 The figures, so far as they bear upon the present inquiry, are given 

 in Table II in the Appendix. 



The Scottish Widows' Fund statistics being only available in the 

 form given in Table II, we proceeded to extract the Registrar- 

 General's data for the same periods and in the same form, in order- 

 that trustworthy comparisons might be instituted ; and we also treated 

 in precisely the same way the valuable statistics of Frankfort-on-the- 

 Main, to be described more minutely later on. 



For England, Scotland, and Ireland respectively, the census enume- 

 rations of 1861, 1871, and 1881 were available for both males and 

 females, the populations being classified in the same age periods as in 

 the data supplied by the Scottish Widows' Fund. We had also the 

 total populations, both male and female, enumerated in 1891, but 

 information as to the age distribution of these populations had not 

 hitherto been published. It was therefore necessary to assume that 

 the age distribution in 1891 was the same as in 1881. A source of 

 inaccuracy has been thus introduced, but its magnitude cannot be 

 serious.* From the figures in the four census enumerations, the 

 number of males and females respectively living in the middle of the 

 years 1861, 1871, 1881, and 1891, were calculated for each age period 

 2535, 3545, 4555, 5565, 6575, and 75 and over; and from 

 these figures again the numbers living in each age group in the 

 middle of each year from 1860 to 1891 inclusive were worked out. 

 These were then classed into septennial periods, as with the Scottish 

 Widows' Fund, with a broken period at the end. In this way was 

 obtained with great accuracy the population in age groups in each 

 division of the United Kingdom, passing through a year of life in 

 each of the septennia under review. The deaths from cancer, 

 arranged according to age, are given in the annual returns of the 

 Registrar- General, and these were extracted and summed for the 



* Owing to the steady fall in the birth-rate between 1881 and 1891, the average 

 age of the population is probably somewhat higher at the latter date. This would 

 tend to slightly exaggerate the apparent increase in the death-rate from cancer. 



