The Evils of Smoking 205 



off the possibility of his realizing the high standards of 

 moral character set for him. It is well also to remem- 

 ber that prevention of the boy's misuse of his sex 

 life is comparatively easy and that cure is extremely 

 difficult. 



4. The so-called bad habits. When we speak of 

 the "bad habits" among boys and men we are in- 

 clined to think of swearing, smoking, and the use of 

 intoxicants. Without thought of defending the 

 practice of profanity, we may say that it is often 

 acquired in an innocent fashion and that it ordinarily 

 implies no conscious or intentional evil. That is, it 

 is usually not so bad in its actual analysis as it sounds 

 to the listener. Moreover, it is a habit which many 

 boys take up and afterwards discontinue when once 

 they have set up for themselves high standards of 

 manliness. 



With juvenile smoking the case is different. With- 

 out the thought of offending the adult smoker or 

 defending adult smoking, we may say with a high 

 degree of certainty that the use of tobacco is ex- 

 tremely hurtful to growing boys. It weakens and 

 deranges the organic processes, leaves its deleterious 

 effects in the throat, eyes, and lungs, and breaks down 

 the natural constitutional defense so essential in 

 time of such diseases as pneumonia and typhoid 

 fever. On the mental side, tobacco lessens the boy's 

 ability to study. Very wide investigations have 

 shown that the habitual smokers among school boys 



