IS CANCER A GROWING MENACE? All statistics agree in indicating that the proportion of deaths recorded in civilized communities as the result of cancer has been increasing for several years, but the exact significance of this fact is not yet agreed on. It is perfectly evident that the average age of the people of these communities has also been increasing during the same period, partly from lowered birth rate, partly from reduction in the mortality from tuberculosis, typhoid, diphtheria and numerous other infectious diseases that attack the young, especially the infantile diseases. Obviously, every person saved from death in youth becomes a potential victim of cancer in later years, and consequently every improvement in public health leads to an increased cancer mortality. Should a means be found to cure or prevent effectively the last remaining large group of infectious diseases, the acute respiratory infections, there would result a marked augmentation