Fritz Lickint Finds Evidence that Links Lung Cancer and Cigarettes

It is interesting to note, however, that in 1929 (presumably too late to be included in the handbook) the German physician, Fritz Lickint published a paper in which he showed that lung cancer patients were particularly likely to be smokers.

He then went on a crusade against smoking, and antitobacco activism actually became widespread in Germany.

With the postwar rise in popularity of cigarette smoking, however, the significant increase in lung cancer promoted nascent investigations into the link between smoking and cancer. In 1929, Fritz Lickint of Dresden, Germany, published a formal statistical evidence of a lung cancer–tobacco link, based on a study showing that lung cancer sufferers were likely to be smokers.Lickint also argued that tobacco use was the best way to explain the fact that lung cancer struck men four or five times more often than women (since women smoked much less)

Fritz Lickint of Dresden published the first good statistical evidence of a lung cancer tobacco link in 1929, based on a case series showing that lung cancer sufferers were likely to be smokers. Lickint also argued that tobacco use was the best way to explain the fact that lung cancer struck men four or five times more often than women (since women smoked much less) and that in countries where women also smoked, the sex difference was much smaller.