Respiratory signs and symptoms in young soldiers and their relationship to smoking.

ONE of the commonest chest diseases in this country is chronic bronchitis. It is frequently responsible for the downgrading and also the invaliding of otherwise useful soldiers. Despite this, the retiology is only partly known. Most studies are done on middle-aged subjects in whom the disease is fully developed but who often give a tenor twenty-year history. It should therefore be profitable to study the young in whom the disease might be starting and who may therefore be in closer contact with the original causes: In this article an attempt is made to investigate the influence of smoking in the development of what may be the early stages of chronic bronchitis.