TOBACCO USERS PROVE TO BE POOR STUDENTS.
Dr. J. W. Seaver, for the past twenty-five years physical director of the Yale gymnasium, said the other day that he had observed that its high standing men at Yale do not smoke, and that the smokers of the college were of mediocre attainments, or low standing. “This may be interpreted in two ways,” said Dr. Seaver. “Either the use of tobacco has reduced mental activity, or the kind of mind that permits its possessor to become addicted to a habit that is primarily offensive and deteriorating is the kind of mind that will be graded low in intellectual tests.” “I have inquired of the men what return they get for the expenditure involved in smoking, and the almost universal reply is that they feel a social satisfaction from smoking. ‘It gives a fellow something to do when he is with others,’ or, ‘It is company for him when he is alone,’ is the almost universal reply.” “A very rare reply is that smoking makes him feel better physically. It argues a rather poor mental equipment, and lack of ambition, if a man needs a pipe to keep him company.” In discussing the physical side of the question as he had reckoned it from his charts, Dr. Seaver said that the gain in growth is in general 12 per cent greater among those who do not use tobacco, than among those who smoke. He said that it had been proved by laboratory experiments here that a dose of nicotine secured by smoking a fairly mild cigar reduces a man’s muscular power from 25 to 40 per cent. He has noticed among Yale men that smoking inevitably lowers the standard of cleanliness, and begets a disregard for the rights of others that seems to have its root in selfish indulgence.—New York Sun.