TOBACCO-SMOKING AND TUBERCULOSIS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2861, 13 January 1909, Page 40

TOBACCO-SMOKING AND TUBERCULOSIS.

(The Hospital.) Accurate statistics have been drawn up by the Henry Phippe Institute on the re--1 lations batween A- "a <>t tobacco and i it ,_.-aenoe cf pulmonary tubercuiosis. 1 -rive figures are so fair available onJy for one year, btut they are al-ready instructive. No women are recorded as having used tobacco, so that they are excluded from 00-ns iteration -altogether; tKat is to cay, the is=u« is not confused by the inclusion of th e . women .among the non-smokers. | Altogether there were 443 male patiemts during the year, and of these 322 used tobacco in one form or another ; 119 did not use tobacco at all and in the remaining two no record waa made upon the question. The disease was improved or arrested in 58 per oe-nt. of thesa who used tobacco and in 47 per osn/t. of those who did not u~-e it. while 62 per oent. of the tobacco users did unfavourably againc* 53 peT cent, of rb-a others. The propon/de-rance seams sufficient to disprove the claim which has ' bee>n made that* tobacco is a preventive of tuberculosis implantation. It io -to be hoped i that the above statistics will bs oantiniusd ] and elaborated aa years go on. One would I like to know the relative merits and deI merits, -as regards phthisis, of cigarettes, eigatfs, and pipes respectively ; of each I of these as regards amounts per week, and I in relat'on to indoor or outdoor occupaj tion>s ; of the variations in phthisis mci■- ■ d<nce that n-ay occur an:ong those who do ■ and those who do not inhale ; those who chew and ■those who do not chew ; those | who enuff and those who do not. One . would like, for example, to know with fOM degree of certainty whether pipe , smoker's who inhale or cigar smokers 1 who inhals do wor;c than tho;e j \\ ho only inhale the smoke of cigarettes ; whether a smoker who contracts phthisis and is still in an early stage of the disease is more likely *o recover if he continues smoking as before, reduces his smoking, !or gives it up altogether. It is surprising how difficult it is ro obtain a definite | answer to these question? beyond the personal opinion of individuals. Such personal | opinion is given by come in favour of con--1 tinuanoe of moderate smoking, by others iin favour of relinquishing it. There are no real data for either opinion. The data are only now being accumulated. They arc open to the very greatest difficulties an interpretation owing to the wide differ- , er.ces there are in olliar factors in the j different cases.