No spitting, no smoking

Abstract

One of the joys of being old is that you can spot long term social trends. When I was a boy the world was full of signs saying: “No spitting.” People do still spit in the street, but it's now highly deviant. The signs have disappeared. Smoking is slowly following spitting into profound deviancy, and Liam Donaldson, England's chief medical officer, last week hastened the trend by calling for a ban on smoking in public places and at work (p 69). This has, of course, already happened in many places, including Los Angeles, New York, and the Republic of Ireland. In the 1950s my doctor …