TOBACCO AND ITS EFFECTS. 8/ 



But we are not compelled to consult the statistics of 

 Europe in order to present examples of this kind. 



Probably as conclusive evidence as the most exacting 

 can demand, in regard to the effects of smoking upon the 

 constitution of the young, and even the most vigorous 

 among the young, is to be found in the testimony given 

 by the action of the authorities of the United States Naval 

 School at Annapolis, and those of the Military Academy at 

 West Point. It is well known that only lads who are close 

 approximations to physical perfection can pass the rigor- 

 ous examination to which all candidates for admission are 

 subjected at these institutions ; if such boys as are there 

 to be seen cannot endure the strain which tobacco puts 

 upon them, it is fair to ask, who can? Yet, after a full 

 trial of the experiment, extending over the period of 

 three years, we find Dr. Gihon, Medical Director of the 

 United States Na\y, using the following language in 

 regard to the use of tobacco at the Naval School : — 



" I have urged upon the superintendent, as my last official utter- 

 ance before leaving this institution, the fact — of the truth of which 

 five years' experience as health-officer of this station has satisfied 

 me — that, beyond all other things, the future health and usefulness 

 of the lads educated at this school require the actual interdiction of 

 tobacco. In this opinion I have been sustained, not only by all my 

 colleagues, but by all other sanitarians, in military and civil life, 

 whose views I have been able to learn, while I know it to be the 

 belief of the officer who is to succeed me in the charge of this de- 

 partment, and who was one of the board of medical officers which in 

 1875 reported ' that the regulations against the use of tobacco in any 

 form cannot be made too stringent.' Since three successive annual 

 boards of visitors have indorsed the prohibition of tobacco as a 

 'wise sanitary provision,' and the last of these boards, on being 

 informed that the regulation against its use was not then in opera- 

 tion (June 10, 1879), emphatically recommended that 'its strict 



