416 PRACTICAL HYGIENE 



stunts the growth. The boy who uses it cannot develop 

 into so strong and capable a man as he would by leaving 

 it alone. 



2. Tobacco injures the heart. 



3. Tobacco injures the air passages, especially when 

 inhalation is practiced. 



4. Tobacco injures the nervous system and by this 

 means interferes in a general way with the bodily processes. 

 For the same reason it interferes with mental and moral 

 development, the cigarette being a chief cause of criminal 

 tendencies in boys. 



5. In some cases tobacco injures the vision. 



6. The tobacco habit is expensive and is productive of 

 no good results. 



Tobacco and the Rising Generation. The problem of 

 limiting the use of tobacco to the point where it would do 

 slight harm, in comparison to what it now does, would be 

 solved if those under twenty years of age could be kept 

 from using it. But few would then acquire the habit, and 

 those who did would not be so seriously injured. In our 

 own country it lies within the province of the home and 

 the school to bring about this result. The fact that par- 

 ents use tobacco is no reason why the boys should 

 also indulge. The decided difference in effects upon the 

 young and upon the mature makes this point very clear. 

 Laws protecting boys from the evil effects of tobacco, not 

 only cigarettes, but other forms as well, are both just and 

 necessary. 



Social Custom and the Caffeine Habit. By suitable pro- 

 cesses a white, crystalline solid, easily soluble in water, can 

 be separated from the leaves of tea, and from the berry of 

 the coffee plant. This is the drug caffeine, the substance 

 which gives to tea and coffee their stimulating properties, 



