KILLED BY CIGARETTES.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18015, 6 March 1924, Page 9

KILLED BY CIGARETTES.

Excessive cigarette smoking was stated at a Lewisham inquest to have accelerated the death of Alfred John Capon (22), a Catford labourer, who was found dead.in bed.

Dr. Hogg, who made a post-mortem examination, said the heart weighed 21ioz, the normal weight being 10 or 12oz. The walls of the heart were degenerated and dilated. Other organs in the body were enlarged. The doctor attributed death to heart failure from degeneration, due to anaemia and accelerated by excessive cigarette smoking and the habit of inhaling. Capon had been an excessive smoker from an early age, and witness had warned him against it. The Coroner recorded a verdict in accordance with the medical evidence.

"It is generally 'chain' smoking that does the harm in cases like this," said a West End specialist in discussing the death of Capon. "One cigarette is lit from another with hardly a break for hours. What makes this deadly is the fact that it is frequently accompanied by the habit of inhaling. A great deal of nicotine thus gets into the blood through the lungs. In an attempt to decrease the absorption of nicotine some people only smoke half a cigarette or cigar, as was the custom of King Edward. It is doubtful if an individual could give up inhaling unless he gave up smoking altogether. There is a great deal of trouble at present owing to excessive smoking—indigestion, palpitation of the heart, and a feeling of weakness or a headache. Unfortunately this over-indulgence is on increase, particularly among women. Some o| them think nothing of 30 -cigarettes «a day. Ten are quite enough for anybody who is chiefly indoors."