The statements made by Prof. Roswell Park, Buffalo, N. Y., in a paper published a short time since in the Medical News, in reference to the progressive and rapid increase of cancer in this country, would not seem to be borne out by recent statistics furnished by the health department of New York City. According to the official figures reported by the department, there were in the first quarter of the year 1899 (thirteen weeks) 503 deaths from cancer, an average of 38 9/13 per week, while in the second quarter of the year 1898 there were 511 deaths from the disease, an average of 39 4/13 per week. Instead of an increase, therefore, there was an actual as well as a relative decrease in the deaths from cancer, the estimated population of the city on April 1, 1899, being 3,550,053, against 3,438,899 on Oct. 1, 1898. The maximum mortality