As has already been said, Germany was the leader in epidemiological studies of smoke-related diseases and anti-smoking policy long before the Nazis took power (1933). 3,6,13 In the eighteenth century there were already smoking bans, for example, in cities, forests, barns and rooms. The restrictions were primarily intended to reduce the risk of fire, but there was also a strong moral under-current, with female smoking considered socially unacceptable.14 These restrictions were eased in the early nineteenth century, when public health officials felt that smoke had soothing and anti-miastic properties that could be helpful in the face of cholera outbreaks. However, in 1840, the Prussian authorities reinstated the ban on smoking in public places.