The relation of cancer to life assurance : a paper read at the Life Assurance Medical Officers' Association, May 5th, 1897, with a discussion / by Joseph Frank Payne.

  • Payne, Joseph Frank, 1840-1910.
Date:
[1897]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The relation of cancer to life assurance : a paper read at the Life Assurance Medical Officers' Association, May 5th, 1897, with a discussion / by Joseph Frank Payne. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    12/36 (page 10)
    Evidence of transmission in the descending line, as given in the above quoted cases, is, of course, the most satisfactory, but we generally have to be content with tha^ derived from investi¬ gation in the ascending line, of which I have now to speak. Antecedent Family History of Cancer as traced in Cancerous Persons. On this point the results given by the experience of different observers are very divergent. Some deny the influence of heredity altogether. Those wTlio admit it, find hereditary influence in of cases. I quote a few of them. very different proportion Sir James Paget, out of 822 cases • • • 24 p. c. Velpeau, one-third of all cases... 33 )> H. T. Butlin 33 »» S. W. Gross 10-3 a Lebert ... 10 a Sibley 11 t* Parker ... 14 a Roger Williams... 24 it Statistics of British Medical Association (174 cases women) • • • 33 a do. in direct line of descent 20 a do. from father and mother 16-8 11 The lowest estimate is that given by (or quoted from) Winiwarter, who gives, for Mammary Cancer, family history as only 5*8 per cent. Some figures, stated to give the experience of the London Cancer Hospital at Brompton, give, out of 26,688 cases, family history in 10-5 per cent. In estimating the general resultant of the above figures, I am impressed with the fact, that in private practice a higher ratio of Cancer in the ascendants is found than in hospital practice. Now the information obtained from private patients belonging to the educated classes is certain to be more accurate than that