I CAN RECOMMEND the pamphlet Smoking, by Sir Ronald Fisher
(published by Oliver and Boyd at 2s. 6d.), to anybody who believes—I come across a surprising number of people who do-7-that cigarettes have been found guilty of murder by lung cancer with incontrovertible scientific proof. The case against smoking is based on statistics; and though they show there is a link between smoking and lung cancer, there is no evidence that smoking causes lung cancer : it might just as well be that lung cancer cauSes smoking. If smoking is the cause, why should lung cancer have increased much less rapidly in women than in men, though smoking among women has been increasing much more rapidly than among men? Why should there be fewer inhalers among cancer patients than there were among the non-cancer group of Smokers used as 'controls'? And what about the differences between town and country cancer rates? These and other such questions remain to be answered before smoking can be condemned—at least on this charge: some of us, sitting in asphyxiating railway carriages, or looking at a valuable carpet scarred by some careless guest, may wish it were abolished anyway.
PH AROS
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