Smoking Among German Youth
It appears that the German Government has taken the matter of smoking seriously in hand, the practice being carried to so great an extent by the youth of that nation that it has been considered to have damaged their constitutions, and incapacitated them for the defense of their country. In certain towns of Germany, therefore, the police have been ordered to forbid all lads under sixteen years of age to smoke in the streets, and to punish the offense by fine and imprisonment. Moreover, a Belgian physician has ascertained, during a journey of observation and inquiry, made at the request of the Belgian Government, that the very general and excessive use of tobacco is the main cause of color blindness, an affection which has occasioned very considerable anxiety both in Belgium and Germany, from its influence upon railway and other accidents, and also from a military point of view.