On the alleged Increase of Cancer. 227 



distributed in age groups, according to the English Life Table No. 3, 

 Persons, as shown in Table B. A very slight adjustment was re- 

 quired in consequence of the Frankfort statistics being prepared for 

 the decades 2030, 3040, &c., and not for 2535, 3545, &c., as 

 at home. The final results are given in Table XVI. 



The first thing that strikes one in examining this table is, the 

 marked prevalence of cancer in Frankfort as compared with the 

 United Kingdom, and we have failed to discover any facts in ex- 

 planation of this, unless it be the extremely careful certification for 

 which that city is noted. 



Nevertheless the same general laws prevail as with all the other 

 statistics available. Cancer preponderates greatly in the female sex, 

 and, looking at the column relating to the total cancer, the progressive 

 apparent increase for both sexes is observable. The Frankfort 

 figures are, however, very instructive on account of the sub-division 

 of which they are capable. 



The cancer of undefined position does not show much sign of pro- 

 gressive change. No doubt on account of paucity of data, the 

 numbers run irregularly, but from beginning to end of the thirty 

 years under review there is no marked tendency to increase or 

 decrease. This fact is of great importance, because, although in any 

 year there may be accidental fluctuations, yet, taken over such a 

 mg series of years, the figures become trustworthy. On the other 

 hand, the rates of mortality from " inaccessible " cancer, both for 

 males and females, steadily rise, though, perhaps, not quite so 

 rapidly as in the United Kingdom. One very remarkable fact 

 becomes apparent, namely, that males and females suffer almost 

 equally from " inaccessible " cancer, the average for the thirty 

 years being 1,641 for males and 1,640 for females. The excessive 

 mortality from cancer of females is confined to " accessible " cancer, 

 that is, practically to cancer of the female sexual organs. 



The numbers relating to " accessible " cancer run somewhat irre- 

 gularly, probably because of the paucity of data, among males there 

 having been only 31 deaths in this category during the thirty years ; 

 but no well marked law of variation can be detected. There is, if 

 anything, a tendency to decrease, at any rate as regards males, but 

 the sequence of the numbers is not such that we could say with 

 jrtainty whether or not that tendency would continue were the 

 duration of the observations to be extended. 



Taking a general view of the Frankfort figures, the one result of 

 surpassing importance to be derived from them is that in those parts 

 of the body in which cancer is easily accessible and detected there has 

 been no increase in the mortality from it between 1860 and 1889. 



It may be mentioned that in 1887 Dr. Grimshaw, the Registrar- 

 General for Ireland, began to tabulate the deaths from cancer in 



