Real and apparent differences in the incidence of cancer / by E.F. Bashford.

  • Bashford, Ernest Francis, 1873-
Date:
1907
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Real and apparent differences in the incidence of cancer / by E.F. Bashford. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    diseases, their epidemic and endemic occurrence, the relation between variations in the incidence of infective diseases, and, e.g., water supply, density of population, rainfall, ground-water, or season. In the case of cancer, the statistical investigator has not yet advanced from the state of ignorance in which the student of the infective diseases compiled statistics in the days before Pasteur and Koch, and it would be unjust to criticise the uses accurate statisticians make of the available data. Until we shall be able to start cancerous proliferation in a tissue at will, we shall remain in this same unfavourable position for determining the true importance of many circumstances, which at the same time it is unjustifiable to ignore. The increased number of deaths recorded from cancer, its apparent greater frequency in some geographical areas (whether large or small) than others, the presumable importance of race, diet, soil, climate, are all problems of much less importance than the infective or non-infective nature of cancer; but we must not lose sight of the fact that it is in all probability as much without the province of statistics to supply the direct answer to the question, What is the cause of cancer ? as it was for statistics to directly prove the causes of diseases now known to depend on infective organisms. Much harm has resulted from the improper use of statistics by those too enthusiastic advocates of this or that speculation on the nature of cancer, who have ignored the limitations to statistical investigations. Accurate statistics of all the circumstances associated with the sporadic appearance of cancer have their proper place. They are at present the best guide in defining the direction experi- mental investigation into the nature of cancer should take. Statistics must be based on accurate data of a nature fitted to the end in view. In the case of cancer, there is a peculiar difficulty in securing accuracy in the data. There is lack of uniformity in the method of compiling existing statistics. In a general survey of statistics on the incidence of cancer, variations in its recorded frequency are the out- standing feature. These variations have attracted much attention, but there is no unanimity as to the conclusions to be drawn from them. Cancer is more frequently recorded in some countries and races of mankind than in others. Its recorded fre- quency varies in the same country, and in urban and rural districts at different times ; and in more limited areas, e.g.,