336 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



SMOKING AND FOOTBALL MEN 



By De. FREDERICK J. PACK 



UNIVERSITY OF UTAH 



WITHIN recent years several investigations have been made con- 

 cerning the effect of smoking on college students, hut in the 

 opinion of the present writer the bases upon which conclusions were 

 founded were often of such a nature that the results were more or less 

 indefinite and unreliable. It has been very difficult to segregate the 

 effects of smoking from other factors, particularly those of physical 

 fitness and of social environment. In most, if not all, of these investi- 

 gations, all classes of students have been included, ranging from the 

 typical scholarship men to those who are in attendance, largely because 

 of participation in athletic sports. Students of different ambitions, of 

 different social classes, of different methods of living have been con- 

 sidered alike in one great group in such a way that the results were 

 often susceptible of various interpretations. 



In order satisfactorily to arrive at a definite conclusion concerning 

 the effect of smoking an investigation should include men alike in 

 physical and mental aptitude, except as modified by the use of tobacco. 

 In general the men should be equal in physical fitness; it is manifestly 

 undesirable to compare recluse scholarship men with those who are in 

 attendance largely because of athletics. If such a heterogeneous group 

 of men were examined with respect to scholastic standing the athlete 

 would unjustly suffer, while if the same group were examined with 

 respect to athletic attainment the injustice would fall upon the scholar- 

 ship man, as it is quite generally recognized that the percentage of 

 smokers is higher among athletes than among scholarship men. So far 

 as possible the men should be alike in social tendency, as activity in 

 social functions tends toward smoking and low scholarship. The socially 

 inclined student, therefore, is likely to be a smoker and to belong to the 

 low-scholarship group, but whether his low scholarship is due to his 

 smoking or to his social tendency is difficult, if not impossible, to decide. 

 In the main, therefore, the students under investigation should be 

 either scholarship men or athletic men; they should be participating 

 in the same kind and amount of athletic sport ; they should be carrying 

 the same amount of scholastic work; they should be taking part in the 

 same kind of social activities. 



"While it is not claimed that all of these disturbing factors have 



