BOYS AND TOBACCO | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Aug 18, 1881

BOYS AND TOBACCO.

THE following item from the Christian Union gives some striking medical authorities against the use of tobacco, especially by boys, and young men: "While the use of tobacco undoubtedly injures men, it is more injurious to those who have not yet attained their growth. It cuts off from the height of stature and also from the length of life. The British Medical Journal says that a certain doctor, noticing that a large number of boys under fifteen years of age were tobacco users, was led to inquire into the effect the habit had upon their general health. He took for his purpose thirty-eight boys, aged from nine to fifteen, and carefully examined them. In twenty-seven of them he observed injurious traces of the habit. In twenty-two there were various disorders of circulation, digestion, palpitation of the heart, and a more or less marked taste for strong drink. In twelve there was frequent bleeding at the nose; ten had disturbed sleep; twelve had slight ulceration of the mucous membrane of the mouth, which disappeared on ceasing from the use of tobacco for some days. The doctor treated them all for weakness, but with little effect until the smoking was discontinued, when health and strength were soon restored. Scientific investigation shows also that the use of tobacco by boys is decidedly injurious to the brain and mind. In 1862 the Emperor Napoleon, learning that paralysis had increased with the increase of the tobacco revenue, ordered an examination of the schools and colleges, and, finding that the average standing in both scholarship and character was higher among the abstainers, issued an edict forbidding its use in all the national institutions."