The theocrat. [volume] (Zion City [i.e. Zion], Ill.) 1914-1949, 1919-04-12
do about this new danger to character and
manhood ~

do about this new danger to character and
manhood"
After further comment, he remarks:
"The Young Mems Christian Associa-
ton x : is the main distributor the church.
es have not even lifted voice against this
awful curse, and but few right thinking
citizens see the peril, because most of them
indulge. In the name of God, shall we look
with complacency upon this grave danger
to our lads, which, in the end, will rob them
of physical strength, manhood and moral
fiber?"
d. H. Kress, NJ. D., in a very able article
entitled, Provisioning Men With Tobacco
Crippled Hearts," appearing in the No
Tobacco Journal, to which we are indebted
for this data, says:
CDR George Edmeston Fahr Contract
Surgeon of the United States Army, in an
article appearing in the Journal of the
American Medical Association, of January
49, 1919, calls attention to the prevalence of
heart disease among young men in the army
Organic disease is not common. The dis
ease known as Irritable Heart or termed,
in Great Britain, Soldiers Heart is re-
sponsible for the rejection of many Young
men who were considered sound until physi-
cal exertion common to the life of the sol
der revealed the defect. The one with an
organic heart lesion is better able to endure
the hardships Of war than is the one suffer-
ing from the disease termed Irritable
Heart and yet casual examination does
not reveal any heart trouble They are
usually passed as fit subjects for the army,
by the examining physicians.
He quotes one of the officers sailing for
France, in describing and discussing the
large number Of men in his Company who
could not stand up under hard hikes, who
were short winded and lacked courage and
initiative in performing athletic stunts, as
saying, Don't the doctors know anything
about heart disease? All these men have
poor hearts. They haven't any mind. I
know they will never be any good when we
get them into the trenches. I would rather
have Company lacking its full quota than
to have the quota made up of these men.
They are the biggest handicap I have
"In speaking of the British Army, in par
ticular, he says: Tt will surprise many to
know that there are two and one-half times
as many pensions for heart disease in the
British Army as there are for the loss of
limbs, and nearly twice as many as for
nervous disease, shell shock and epilepsy
together. =
'"While DR.. Fair does not refer to the
cause of the prevalence of this form of
heart disease, experiments conducted at the
Hampstead MILITARY Hospital for heart
diseases in England. by Doctors John Park
inson and Hilner Koefod led to the con-
clusion that the prevalent use Of cigarets
was the chief cause of the prevalence of
this form of heart difficulty.
"The London Loncet, of August Is, 1917,
in referring to these experiments, said: In
this war, as in wars of the past many SOL
diers prove insufficient because they be-
come unduly GREATNESS in the exertion
which military service entails. The same
individuals often complain Of praecordia1
pains, palpitation giddiness and exhaus-
ton. Some of these cases present the signs
of valvular disease of the heart and are
discharged from the army on this account
Yet in the ma jority of soldiers with these
symptoms, no abnormal physical signs are
found. x x X
1T has been freely asserted that excessive
smoking, particularly of cigarets, is one of
I1c most potent causes OF lle CO1lulllOH
There are five cigaret crippled soldiers
receiving pension today from Great Bri-
tain for every two that have been pensioned
on account Of physical disablement due to
war.
"Cigaret smoking is as common among
American soldiers as it is among the British.
It is therefore, altogether probable that here
too, five out of every seven pensioned young
men will owe their disability to c1garet
smoking more than to the field OF battle
They were, in all probability, disabled be-
fore they were called into service. The
physical exertion of the drill, and later on
the field of battle, merely culled them out,
as physical units for army life.
''The time is not far distant when the
search light of science will be focused upon
tobacco, as it has been during the past few
wears upon alcohol. When it is, tobacco
will meet with a similar fate. The facts are,
and they are we'll known, that tobacco IS
more insiduous and a more deadly poison
than alcohol.
"America cannot afford to encourage
traffic which tends to unfit her young men
for military service, at this time when TIT
Young men are SO much in demand, and then
pension for life the young men she has thus