The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1878-12-05
BOY SMOKERS.

1t is no secret that many of the most
emirent physicians at home and abroad
have come to look with very serious ap-
prehension upon the tobacco habit, in
the form it now so often takes, of exces-
sive, not to say constant smoking. One
need not be medical practitioner in or
der to know that generally habit which
held properly in check, might be com.
paratively luxury, may, by excess, be-
come danger and curse. Dr. Benja-
min W. Richardson, of London, we'll
known as a medical specialist of great
rank, in the course of recent paper on
Nervous Diseases. from Tobacco" sHms
up his estimate of the effect of tobacco,
as used by his own Countrymen, as fol-
lows: "Put down the smokers of Great
Britain at million in numbers-there
are more, but let it pass. Why should
there exist, perpetually, million of En-
glishmen, not one of whom can at any
moment be writ down as in good, perfect
health from day to day? Why should
million n en- be living with stomachs
that only partially digest, hearts that la.
Dor unnaturally, and blood that is not
fully oxidized. The question
admits of but one answer-the existence
of such million of imperfect working
living organisms is national absur.
dity."
But, whatever may be the ultimate
verdict Of the psychologists as to the eff.
feet of the tobacco habit on the average
adult man, there ia absolutely no room
for debate, and probably no difference
of opinion, in respect to its evil results
when INDUCED in by growing BOYS.
an exception, every medical
writer of any ability who expresses him
self at all on the subject, gives warning
against the use of tobacco in any form
by those of immature years; and com.
non observation sufficiently confirms
what the faculty proclaim. DR.. Richard
ION, in the paper already quoted from,
'emarks that the effects OF tobacco are
injurious to the young who
ire yet in the stage of adolescence. In '
hese the habit of smoking causes stunt
I'd growth, premature manhood and
physical prostraton. If COM
nunity of youths of both sexes, whose ,
,rogenitors were finely formed and DOW ;
rful, we're to be trained to the early !
,raCtiCe of smoking, aud if marriage I
we're to be confined to the smokers, an A
pparently new and physically inferior 5
ace of men and women would BIZ born" I
Investigation carried on under govern
lent supervision, among the BOYS going u
0 polytechnic schools of Paris, have dis
overed clearly defined line between N
he smokers and the non.smokers-tbe p
alter being decidedly superior to the p
lrmer in general scholarship, quickness o. o.
f apprehension and in mental force.
The poisonous nicotine which consti. y,
ties the active principle of common t. -
acCo, and which, in the confirmed admit y
noker, is met and to some extent neu-
allied by the natural resisting forces Of
ne maturned human system, laws hold
the forming nerve tissues of b g
oung, and does it's misChevous work
Stunted growth, fabby
esh, pasty complexion, sbambling gait,
exile appetite, lack of interest in things
nd premature ripeness, like that of al
iseased apple, are among the signs of %
Jury carried on by thousands of Amer Of
AN boy smokers, who are striving to n
low themselves men by proving them O.
,lVes--very foolish children. That the y
ractice of smoking is fast increasing
nong the boys of towns and cities, and
lst the age at which the habit is taken y
p is rapidly approaching the nursery, if "
OF the cradle, cannot be doubted by one re
ho walks the streets-and especially
le alleys-with his eyes open. Oh
Iurse the first incentive is desire to r,
nitate elders-to appear large before # #
leir time; but after the first rebellion of H
'ture is overcome, an appetite for the tt
arcotic is speedily created, even in ha'f A
own boys, and thereafter the desire 81
r smoking is ever present, and well II
gh ineradiCabe. 1t is an easy matter n
point out the evil; parents and teach. -
s will not find it 80 simple task to
eet and overcome it. Smoking like cl,
'ards and voting, had better be post p
med until the STRIPPING is at least in y
ght of the estate of manhood; and even oi,
the habit should not be formed at all, wi
q world would not come to end in con- OF
quence, and nobody would have any