Tobacco and Physical Degeneracy
Occasionally there is an alarm sounded concerning the deadly tobacco habit, but it is usually because army and navy authorities find that it interferes with their securing recruits. Somehow people generally do not realize that any habit which unfits young men physically for active service in the army or navy naturally unfits them for more useful employment. If the loss to those worse than useless occupations were all the evil effects of tobacco upon our youth, it would be a comparatively small matter. But we hear more complaints from these sources than from any other, and are therefore indebted to them for some very practical information, which might be advantageously applied to all other callings. If people in general would reflect that the peculiar character of the physical injuries inflicted by the use of tobacco works in an especial manner to impoverish the mind, there would be far more effort to discourage, or even to prevent its use. But the latest complaint from the army is that of Lieutenant Bennett, a recruiting officer in New Orleans. He says that out of 106 applications for enlistment during July only twenty-nine were accepted. Cigaret smoking is given as the principal cause of physical degeneracy among the youth of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. It is one of the causes everywhere.