JUVENILE TOBACCOSMOKING.

Evening Star, Issue 12762, 15 March 1906, Page 7

JUVENILE TOBACCOSMOKING.

There has been much loose talking upon this subject since Calverley wrote : How they who use fusees Ali grow by slow degrees Brainless as chimpanzees, Meagre as lizards; Go mad and beat their wives; Plunge (after shocking lives) Razors and carving-knives Into their gizzards. And yet t-hera is wanting some authoritative and scientific pronouncement as to the actual harm cone to his physique by the juvenile smoker. It is common to bear that smoking stunts the growth; it is constantly repeated as a fact, and that by medical men of eminence. But is there any truth in the charge? Certainly wo do not recall that those of our school-fellows who lost no opportunity of smoking in their youth have grown up to be unsatisfactory citizens. There is room for some really careful observation on the effects of tobac-co-smoking upon t!ie economy, for there is little doobt that idiosyncrasy is particularly in evidence an connection with this drvg. The smoker's heart, for instance, ia a well-recognised physiological effect of excessive smoking—exop«sive, that is to say, for the individual. Syncopal attacks are also quite common; insomnia in a good number of people is a commpn sequcl*to any function which entails an unusual consumption of tobacco late at night. On the other hand, many men can smoke from sunrise to sunset for years, and inhale every mouthful of smoke, with never a symptom. This immunity, of course, gives them occasion to blaspheme those who suggest that the practice of smoking may tie physically deleterious; and no progress is made. towards the truth. We are far from upholding the practice of smoking

iftyouth ! j('if ifc'iS riot' harmful it is to expensive indulgence, often aneictifld ' for idleness, and generally, unsuited tot the disciplinary years- of this is no defence for labelling ..-. Ihe . practice " poison '•' without some rnore definite evidence than' has yet been brought fbrwirtf. 'The Hospital.' •