CIGARETTE SMOKING BY YOUTHS.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 10966, 4 June 1903, Page 4

CIGARETTE SMOKING BY YOUTHS.

The Wellington Board of^ Education the other day had mider consideration an extract from the'Mastorton headmaster's, report, complaining that vendors were allowed to sell cigarettes to boys, and asking that some action should be taken in the matter! 1 ' In the discussion which ensued the stated that while he was in a Chinaman's shop the other day • getting some fruit a little boy came in with* the demand, "A cigarette, John !'■' and put down his halfpenny, for which ho got his cigarette. ' Mr Field's Juvenile - Smoking Suppression Bill, which was in?, troduced in last Parliament and dropped at the end of the rfession^' was spoken of with approval, and the hope was expresscrl that this measure would,, be taken up again. Some striking illustrations havr recently, been given by Mr P. L. Lord of effects of cigarette smoking upon schoolboys. In an Ani or jean, public school .of about 500 pupils it was found th*t tV boys were very^tau^h inferior to the griris in every -wav. ..It. was. ajso. found that a ■large ma jority of the 'boys were thabitual cigarette smokers. An investigation wpj> orggro.d, .to ascertain exactly how far the sjjmking, w#s to blame, for the .boys' in- • efficiency .and low moral condition.. For several months twenty boys, who it wa« kno^wn dyl'nqt use' tobacco in any form. > di&wn b#, lot, an4vt?§flty v boys known ;fo ■•bft Cigarette fiends" yrsre closely I,ob- j

served by ten teachers. The ages of tljeboys were from' ten to "seventeen, "tht; average age being" a little over fourteen',; 1 " Of the twenty smokers twelve, had smoke.C . more than a year, and some several years. -. All ' twenty boys used cigarettes, "wtiil« : some also nsel pipes, and cigars occasionally. The following reculiaritics were, noticed in the smokers: Twelve of them had poor 'memories, and *ten of the twelve were reported as very poor; on?y four had fair memories, and not one of the twenty boyg had a good memory,. Twelve, were^iq poor physical condition, six. being subjectto "sick spells," and were practically already physical v^ecks v ,. Eight were re*. , ported ,as bping inxa fair or, good ton4|f." tjony' but none wcr£ 'excellent. 'In 1 ' -YaJf'-''? ! University comparisons" w.erje,' { n|ade 'fimfr' I.1 ''. eight years - between-- smokers - a.nd • npi-f smokers. As compared 'with-tlie 1 emokersi)' r the '• non-smokers gained 2jt • l per-' l o^nt-iS- r ,weight, 37 per cent in height 42° per e^hV !j in girth', and. ,8.36 cubic inches in lung, expansion. *• " t - 'i'