Death trap

“An old cough doctor” is how Sir John Crofton describes himself before launching into the Seventh Edinburgh Medal Address. Published as Science & Society: Tuberculosis, Tobacco, Poverty and Crime (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, £4.99, ISBN 0 297 81664 8), he outlines some of the vicious traps that poverty and indifference create for TB sufferers, and outlines the fate lying in wait for smokers. One for the would-be quitters who may find that they need their New Year resolutions bolstering.