The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1902-03-13

lOAh JIG VI lo4
in the class of 1891, Yale college, DIR.
j. w. Seaver found that the non-users
of tobacco gained in weight during the
college course 10.4 per cent. more
than the regular users, and 6.6 per
cent. more than the occasional users.
In height the non-users increased "a
per cent. more than the regular users,
and u Per cent. more than the occa-
sional users. In increase of chest
girtl the non-users had an advantage
of 26.7 per cent. and % per cent, and
an increase of lung capacity of TIA
and 40 per cent, respectively. These
facts in regard to the dwarfing eff
fects of tobacco are cOrroborated by
the observations or the class of 1891,
Amherst, made by DR.. Edward Hitch
cock. He found that in weight nom
smokers increased during their course
"a per cent. more than the smokers; in
increase in height they surpassed
them 81 per cent; in gain of chest,
AZ per cent, and in gain of lung ca
pacity, IS per cent. In Yale only %
per cent. of those reaching the high
est grade in scholarship were users
of tobacco, while IS per cent. of the
lowest grade used it.
At the Polytechnic school in France
it was found that the non-smokers
took the highest rank in every grade,
and that the smokers continually lost
grade. Hence the use of tobacco was
prohibited in the public schools. 1t is
also prohibited in our government
schools at Annapolis and West Point.
1t is stated that one-ffth of all the
boys who apply for admission to the
Naval academy are rejected on ac-
count of irregularity of the hearts
action, and this, the surgeons claim,
is caused almost universally by smok-
ing cigarettes.
DR.. Francis L. Bowling. in a paper
read before the Mississippi Valley
Medical association, shows, as the re-
suit of careful Investigations by him
self and others, that impaired vision
is one of the common results of the
habitual use of tobacco. He conduct
ed personal examination of 80 male
employees in a large tobacco factory,
all of whom used tobacco. Of these
he found that in As cases the normal
acutenesS of vision was diminished
in a greater or less degree. In 30 cases
the impairment was very serious, and
was accompanied with some form of
color-blindness.
A New York occulist describes a pc
culiar disease of the eye among
smokers, the symptoms of which are
dimness and film-like gatherings over
the eye, which appear and disappear
at intervals. This has been shown to
be due to the use of tobacco. and can
only be cured by long treatment. Iii is
known as the cigarette eye.
1t is often claimed that there are
many strong ard vigorous persons
who can use tobacco without injury.
As a proof of this instances are
pointed out of many habitual users of
tobacco who have attained a hale and
hearty old age, some of whom even
believe that their lives have been
heightened by its use. From these
cases it is argued that the use of to-
bacco is not necessarily harmful.
The answer to this argument is
twofold. In the first place, the prop
er mode of testing the effects of a
drug is by watching the results of it's
use, not by the strong and vigorous,
who can endure much, and are not
easily influenced, but by the young,
the weak and the delicate, upon whom
any influence, whether beneficial or
injurious, is easily manifested. If to-
bacco is essentially beneficial in its
nature it will benefit this class as well
as the strong and robust. And if it is
injurious to the weak and frail, the
inference is safe one that it is essen
ti2lly of a harmful nature, and that to
all alike.
In the second place, in order to de-
termine with any claim to scientific
accuracy, the nature and effect of to-
bacco upon the human system, it is
necessary to observe its action, not
only upon the individual user, but also
upon his descendants. Tested in this
lldHHeT, tHe statement may Safely be
made that among those strong and
vigorous men who have used tobacco
habitually and constantly for many
years without apparent injury, in not
single instance will their children,
especially those born after the habit
has been long INDUCED in, possess an
equal degree of vigor and endurance;
and particularly in not a single in
stance can they indulge in the ha-
bitual use of tobacco without expert
encing those injurious effects which
their fathers escaped. But whatever
may be the verdict with reference to
the use of tobacco by healthy adults
there exists no difference of opinion
among physicians or scientific men
as to its effects upon young and grow
ing boys. All agree that none of
these ought, for the sake of their own
development, physical, mental and
moral, to use tobacco in any form.
1t is its effects upon this class which
constitutes the essential reason why
the cigarette habit is properly re-
0arded as menace IN ciVilizo tiOn -