Definition

Malignant epithelial growth within the stomach.

Etiology

The stomach is more frequently affected with cancer than any other organ of the body. Vir-chow's1 statistics of all the cancerous diseases which occurred in Wiirzburg between 1852 and 1855 give for the stomach the proportion of 34. 9 per cent. According to Lebert,2 Willigk,3 and Brinton,4 cancer of the stomach comprises about one-fourth of all cases of cancer. Haeberlin 5 found the percentage of cancer of the stomach for the years from 1877 to 1880 to be 41. According to Wyss,6 the death-rate from this disease is 1.9 per cent. This figure, however, is liable to many fluctuations. Haeberlin first pointed out the very curious and discouraging fact that the frequency of gastric cancer is steadily increasing. This writer's statistics for Switzerland show a death-rate from cancer of the stomach for 1,000 inhabitants in the years: 1877, 0:61; 1878,0.66; 1879,0.72; 1880,0.77; 1881, 0.85; 1882, 0.87; 1883, 0.85; 1884, 0.84; 1885, 0.90; 1886, 0.99.

1 Virchow: Cited from Debove et Remond, l. c, p. 297. 2Lebprt: "Traite pratique des maladies cancereuses," Paris, 1851, p. 97.

3 Willigk: Prager Vierteljabresschrift, vol. x., 2, 1853.

4 W. Brinton: British and Foreign Medico-Chirurg. Review, January, 1857.

5 Haeberlin: Deutsch. Arch. f. klin. Medicin. 1889, Heft 8 und 4. p 461.

6Wyss: Blatter f. Gesundheitspflege. Zurich, 1872-74.

Joseph D. Bryant,1 of New York, has also lately shown that cancerous disease is constantly on the increase. According to this eminent writer, the average death-rate from cancer in New York City during the last ten years is 2.17 per cent of the total mortality, but that of the preceding ten years only 1.82 per cent. The following table, given by Dr. Bryant, is very instructive as bearing on the increase of cancer in the United States:

Year.

Population.

Total deaths.

Deaths from cancer.

Cancer deaths per

100,000 from all causes.

Cancer deaths per 100,000 living.

1850.........

23,191,876

323,023

2,088

646

9.0

1860.........

31,443,321

394.153

3,672

932

11.7

1870.........

38,558,371

492,263

6,224

1,264

16.0

1880.....................

50,155,783

756.893

13,068

1,815

26.05

1890.........

62,622,250

875,521

20,984

33.5

The frequency of gastric cancer appears to be different in different countries, and it seems that there are some regions in which it very seldom occurs. Haeberlin's above-mentioned statistics for the whole of Switzerland show a death-rate from cancer of the stomach of 3 percent for the northern cantons, 1.5 per cent for the western cantons, and 1 per cent for the southern cantons. Griesinger2 states that he never observed cancer of the stomach in Egypt, and Heinemann 1 reports that he saw only one case in Vera Cruz in a period of six years.

1 Joseph D. Bryant: The Wesley M. Carpenter Lecture. New York Medical Journal, May 18th, 1895.

2 Griesinger: Arch. f. phys. Heilkumle, 1854. p. 528.