CIGARETTE SMOKING.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 480, 14 September 1909, Page 4

CIGARETTE SMOKING.

Abstinence from cigarettes is the lesson for soldiers preached by Lieutenant-General Sir William Knox, recently retired, in the May number of “ National Defence.” Two singular facts are mentioned by him. One is that at one time during the South Africaii war there were thousands of soldiers away from their units who could not be found. Of these hundreds must have been wilfully away, cursed with nerves, and unable to face the music even for a day. General Knox, too, knows of more than one “regrettable instance ” due to loss of nerve on the part of officers caused by indulgence in cigarettes. What cigarettes can effect is shown in an anecdote of the medical examination of a certain unit, when 20 per cent, were rejected as unfit for service in India owing to heart weakness. Some time later General Knox paid a surprise visit, and found that not i per cent, failed to pass. The fact was that, with a view to evading foreign. service, the old stagers among the men bad organised smoking competitions, so as to bring on ” smoking heart ” among their comrades. It is stated that it is quite possible that a good many men in the South African war supposed to be victims of the cigarette habit may have been victims of cordite chewing, a vice developed during the war. The increase of cigarette smoking is very noticeable in the Navy, where it is an even greater danger than a similar habit in the Army, as the strain of a sea fight on the morale and physique of both officers and men is more severe than in a land battle.