[Report 1919] / Medical Officer of Health, County Council of the Palatine of Chester / Cheshire County Council.

  • Cheshire (England). County Council.
Date:
1919
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1919] / Medical Officer of Health, County Council of the Palatine of Chester / Cheshire County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    20/304 (page 8)
    The deaths were divided as to 308 in males and 439 in females. The recent increase in cancer mortality for the County as a whole is clearly shewn in the following statement: — Year. Death-rate per 1,000 of Population. Year. Death-rate per ] ,000 of Population. 1900 0-70 1910 0-84 1901 0-90 1911 0-96 1902 0-74 1912 0-92 1903 0-79 1913 1-01 1904 0-79 1914 1-02 1905 0-77 1915 1-25 1906 0-85 1916 1 ‘25 1907 0-83 1917 1-26 1908 0-84 1918 1-23 1909 0-86 1919 1 24 In the following paragraphs I have paraphrased or re- produced a section of a most valuable Report by the American Society for the Control of Cancer published for the informa- tion of the medical profession. The early diagnosis of cancer is the factor of greatest importance in the control of the disease. But cancer mani- fests itself by a variety of symptoms. When there is a doubt as to its presence two courses are open; the first is to wait for the development of the symptcms and the second is to joroceed at once to an ‘‘'exploratory’’ operation. Waiting for further and more definice symptoms is a policy which results in enormous mortality. Completion of the diagnosis by ex])loratory operation is the method which “promises the greatest and most immediate reduction of the mortality of cancer.” “Most of the pliysicians of this country (America) have been taught the distinctive and typical symptoms of cancer and by die extent to whicli they are typical they arc the symptoms of cancer which is no longer early but has already progressed to the inoperable stage. It is the early and un- certain cases that must Ix' recognised if any material improve- ment in the mortality is to be broimht about.” O On the subject of “precancerous” conditions to which I have alluded for-many years in my Annual Reports the mono- graph r ocee f 1 s : — One factor which during the last ten yeai’s has provo<l to be of great importance in the origin of cancer is the