t i t nni. Dr John A. H. Wylie
To Your discerning readers not the ast of The Spectator's jnany charms is that their intelligence is rarely
affronted by editorial material which Contrives to combine crass stupidity ‘cs'ith downright irresponsibility. Sadly, „site's 'Nicotine Baby' (September 42) fulfils both these rejectamenta. The evidence that cigarette-smoking inter alio, a primal cause of all but the rarest forms of lung cancer is, with prolonged, painful and i:3irtiilyinexorable progress to a wretched death overwhelming; in !ilany respects more compelling, less incontrovertible, than that which epPates the tubercle bacillus fn tile aetiology of some of those protean Manifestations of the disease which is, Unquestionably, tuberculosis. Further1°re, I can assure you, Sir, similar '1;eas in mitigation might well be ad
anced in a daemonic, phantasMa „ go defence, respecting their vTrial ious depredations, of the cholera
,Intio, the leprosy bacillus and even ur01,
_ friend the 'pallid spiroctiaete.' ‘' anyone who seeks.to prevent by all
table means the dissemination of , ztjn and every one of these malign 'era to be dubbed a 'crack-pot?' By Catn's token, will The Spectator now annllicit advertisements for, say " Terp!teburY's milk chocolate — so full of °tins it almost spews?" sminose who • encourage cigarettes."°king are as guilty of the inevitable equelae as are the militants of the !tbobby in the US, the aiders and ettors of violence in Northern Ireland and those, doubtless sincere,
but misguided zealots, who for so long and with valiant obscurantism have opposed the pasteurisation of milk and the erradication of enzootic disease in livestock. Cigarettes have already killed or maimed more than the first two combined and, were Cato's advocacy heeded, they would bid fair soon to surpass the baleful toll exepted by tuberculosis and so many °Met' plagues of history. • Cato's macabre intention to "lay down" cigarettes for his hapless child assumes a grim, incidental irony when one reflects that a traditional ' pipe ' would not only be more seemly but• also aesthetically, as well as medically, impeccable. Moreover, if the vintage were prudently chosen, Cato's issue would, I do not for one moment doubt, find the port a vastly more rewarding and comely inheritance. Lest the sage and pervasive influence of your well-informed, exciting and normally perceptive hebdomadal be impaired, one can but hope that Cato's deplorable gaffe will ensure for No. 7578 scarcity value alone.
John A. H, Wylie 9A Portland Place, Kemp Town, Brighton.
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