On changes in the recorded mortality from cancer and their possible interpretation / by Major Greenwood, jun., and Frances Wood.
- Major Greenwood
- Date:
- 1914
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: On changes in the recorded mortality from cancer and their possible interpretation / by Major Greenwood, jun., and Frances Wood. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![[Reprinted from the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine, 1914, Vol. VII (Section of Epidemiology and State Medicine), pp. 119—170.] On Changes in the Recorded Mortality from Cancer and their Possible Interpretation. By Major Greenwood, jun., and Frances Wood.1 The questions considered in this paper have aroused the interest of many inquirers and are, indeed, well calculated to do so. If it could be shown that cancer is no more prevalent now than it has been at any time in the past, attempts to discern a causal relation between the progress of the disease and such changes in our habits of life as, for instance, alterations of diet or some hypothetical increase in the wear and tear of daily life, must be waste of labour. Alternatively, if there be truth in the popular view that cancer is on the increase it must be of importance to determine the limits within which such increment may be presumed to lie. Writers of repute have arrived at contradictory conclusions respecting the matter, and the task we set ourselves was an examination of such statistical evidence as has been adduced on both sides of the contro¬ versy and an attempt to pursue further inquiries which might be suggested by the works examined. We have not been led to advocate any strikingly novel opinions, but we may hope that our remarks will serve to initiate a discussion and perhaps suggest to others fruitful lines of research. We have made no attempt to furnish a complete critical review of the literature; to do so would exceed the limits we have assigned to this essay, and an analysis of certain typical and important papers will be sufficient for our purpose. • .](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b30620685_0003.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
