From mortuary statistics Tanchou estimates the frequency of gastric cancer as compared with that of all causes of death at 0.6 per cent.; Virchow, at 1.9 per cent.; Wyss, at 2 per cent.; and D'Espine, at 2½ per cent.9
9 Tanchou, Rech. sur le Traitement méd. des Tumeurs du Sein, Paris, 1844. These statistics, which are based upon an analysis of 382,851 deaths in the department of the Seine, are necessarily subject to sources of error, but they do not seem to me to deserve the harsh criticisms of Lebert and others.
Virchow, Verhandl. d. phys.-med. Gesellsch. Würzburg, 1860, vol. x. p. 49—analysis of 3390 deaths in Würzburg during the years 1852-55.
Wyss, quoted by Ebstein in Volkmann's Samml. klin. Vorträge, No. 87—analysis of 4800 deaths in Zurich from 1872-74.
D'Espine, Echo médical, 1858, vol. ii.—mortuary statistics of the canton of Geneva, considered to be particularly accurate.
In 8468 autopsies, chiefly from English hospitals, Brinton10 found gastric cancer recorded in 1 per cent. of the cases. Gussenbauer and Von Winiwarter11 found gastric cancer recorded in 1½ per cent. of the 61,287 autopsies in the Pathological Anatomical Institute of the Vienna University. From an analysis of 11,175 autopsies in Prague, I find gastric cancer in 3½ per cent. of the cases.12
10 Loc. cit.
11 Arch. f. klin. Chirurg., Bd. xix. p. 372.
12 Statistics of Dittrich, Engel, Willigk, Wrany, and Eppinger, in Prager Vierteljahrschr., vols. vii., viii., ix., x., xii., xiv., xxvii., l., xciv., xcix., and cxiv. Grünfeld found in 1150 autopsies in the general hospital for aged persons in Copenhagen 102 cancers of the stomach, or 9 per cent. (Schmidt's Jahrb., Bd. 198, p. 141).
I have collected and analyzed with reference to this point the statistics of death from all causes in the city of New York for the fifteen years from 1868 to 1882, inclusive.13 I find that of the 444,564 deaths during this period, cancer of the stomach was assigned as the cause in 1548 cases and cancer of the liver in 867 cases. Probably at least one-third of the primary cancers of the liver are to be reckoned as gastric cancers. This would make the ratio of gastric cancer to all causes of death about 0.4 per cent. This ratio becomes about 1 per cent. (0.93) if only the deaths from twenty years of age upward be taken: gastric cancer hardly ever occurs under that age. It is probably fair to conclude that in New York not over 1 in 200 of the deaths occurring at all ages and from all causes is due to cancer of the stomach, and that about 1 in 100 of the deaths from twenty years of age upward is due to this cause.