342 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



From these data it appears that smokers make the better football 

 players. In interpreting the results, however, several points should be 

 kept in mind. In the case of the "very good" men only forty-two 

 individuals are involved, a number rather small from which to draw 

 reliable conclusions. A single institution reporting four or five "very 

 good" smokers or non-smokers and none of the other group (as several 

 institutions have done) is quite sufficient to swing the totals one way or 

 the other. And again, while the totals from the fourteen institutions 

 seem to favor the smokers, this is by no means uniform when the insti- 

 tutions are singly considered. 



Even if the above data were perfectly reliable there is still another 

 vital point to be kept in mind. In the item of " try outs " only half as 

 many smokers were successful as non-smokers. In other words, only 

 the very best smokers were chosen, while with the very best non-smokers 

 a group of second-grade non-smokers was included. At the beginning 

 of the football season when the selections were made the first and second 

 grade non-smokers combined were equal to the first grade smokers. 



Furthermore, it is a well known fact that of two men, a smoker and 

 a non-smoker, of equal ability at the time of beginning training, the 

 smoker will develop into a better man than the non-smoker. This is 

 the case because the non-smoker before training is very much more 

 nearly at his best than is the smoker. As soon, therefore, as the smoker 

 begins training (and consequently stops using tobacco) he has a much 

 better chance for improvement than the non-smoker, who has not been 

 kept back by the use of tobacco. If smoking does not in any way injure 

 one's ability on the football field, the smokers and the non-smokers 

 should supply an equal percentage of the " very best " men. 



Now, when it is borne in mind that in the " try outs " only one half 

 as many of the smokers are chosen as non-smokers, it follows as a simple 

 mathematical deduction that the smoking football men should supply 

 twice as many " very good " men as the non-smokers, a position which, 

 if the above tabulated data were wholly reliable, they come far from 

 reaching. It will be noted, therefore, that the apparent superiority of 

 the smokers is in reality an inferiority. 



In this connection reference may profitably be made to the item of 

 weight given in a previous table, in which it will be observed that the 

 smokers are one half pound heavier than the non-smokers. At first 

 thought this point may appear to be in conflict with the findings of Dr. 



