SIR, --Concerning the connection between the use of tobacco and the
incidence of cancer of the lung, I have been interested to see no mention of certain research carried out in the 1930s by Dr. Ian Orr, working at the Negyoor Mission Hospital, Travancore, S. India. This centre regularly treated epifilw. lioma of the mouth at the rate Qf.J0 cases per annum, and defini tributed the disease to the use of 0.ln types of tobacco, blended with betel nut, and commonly chewed by the inhabitants of that region.
The inicresting point seems to be that other I pes of tobacco were completely innocuous, and it does appear that this line of thought, discrimination between various blends or mixtures, has been comparatively neglected in recent research, at least so far as the public are made aware of it.—Yours faithfully,
ROSEMARY I. EVERI;IT
37 rnnismore Avenue, Chiswick. W.9
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