SMOKING AMONG NURSES.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVII, Issue 4, 31 July 1918, Page 2

SMOKING AMONG NURSES.

The vexed question of smoking j among nurses is receiving considerable I attention from the nurses who reach our shores from distant parts of the world (.says the London medical journal, the ''Hospital.'') , The extent to which English women,, including Muglish nurses, have succumbed to the cigarette habit stirs 'our new comrades with astonishment; i ; shall wo say disgust. ! One eminent Australian nurse has declared that English women con'some more tobacco in a day than the inmates of an Egyptian harem. I Among Australian and New Zealand nurses the habit was unknown before they came to this country. It t has lew redeeming features. Its supposed refreshing effects on the efforts are (lie offspring of suggestion and are grossly exaggerated by its votaries, while when carried to excess its deteriorating effects in the same direction are notorious. From (he nursing point of view there is, we imagine, nothing to be said for the cigarette. It imparts an air of "commonness" to the wearer of uniform wherever it is exhibited. Jt taints the breath unpleasantly. It stains the finger-tips. It runs away with a vast amount .of money. ! Women's smoking .is purely imitative, and as a habit is out of keeping with the spirit of nursing.