Tobacco and Health.

Hastings Standard, Issue 326, 19 May 1897, Page 4

Tobacco and Health.

In the cases of most centenarians, it is usually stated that they took intoxicants or that they indulged in the "fragrant weed"; but the result of research go c -s to show that their longevity was attained in spite of rather than because of these practices. In a recent Arena, article Professor Seaver. of Yale University, states the results of his observations and inquires, carried on in that institution for some years past, with respect to the effects of tobacco-smoking upon health, and more especially in relation to young men. He agrees with Dr. Forster in his " Physiology," that ittends to paralyse the great controlling nerve of the heart; and injuriously affects the whole nervous system. It exercises a bad influence upon the optic disc, which is the end of the optic nerve, and thus weakens the power of vision ; and Dr W. P. Lombard, of the University of Michigan, is quoted as having proved that " the administration of even a moderate amount of tobacco in the form of smoke lowers the working power of the human muscle by a large percentage ; " so that the use of toba&co should be avoided by persons in training for any athletic competition. Ejoifessor Seavev's own observations seem conclusive. In order to examine the efiect of nicotine on growth, in young men from sixteen to twenty-five, the Professor divided the students at Yale into three classes the first comprising those who never smoke ; the second those who do so regularly for at least a year of the college course ; and the third the casual smokers. He found that the first grew in weight during their three and a half years of undergraduate life 10 4 per cent, more than the second, and 6-6 per cent, more than the third. "In height the first group grows 24 per cent, more than the second, and 11 per cent, more than the third ; in girth of chest the first group grows 26-7 per cent, more than the second, and 22 more than the third ; in capacity of lungs the first group gains 77 per cent, more than the second, and 49.5 per cent more than the third." Professor Seaver is of opinion that this question is of sufficient importance, in relation to the health and growth of boys more particularly, to entitle it to to receive more attention than it does at the hands of all those who are at the head of educational institutions. That tobacco smoking hinders pyhsical development seems to be well established, and, therefore, the prevention of the practice among the young is a proper matter for parental and State interefence.