TOBACCO AND ITS EFFECTS. 89 



urge in the strongest terms that this permission to smoke be 

 revoked. 



" Therefore, with the consent of the Honorable, the Secretary 

 of the Navy, I have to forbid the further use of tobacco by the 

 Naval Cadets, and to declare that the prohibition in relation to 

 tobacco, contained in paragraph 169 of the Naval Academy Regula- 

 tions, will be strictly enforced. 



(Signed) " C. R. P. Rodgers, Rear-Admiral, Sup't:" 



And not only at the Naval School has this salutary ac- 

 tion been taken. " The recommendation of the Academic 

 Board that paragraph 129, Regulations of the United 

 States Military Academy of 1877, be expunged, and that 

 the following be substituted for it : The use of tobacco in 

 any fo?'?7i by Cadets is prohibited ; has been approved by 

 the Secretary of War. General Order No. 6. June 11, 

 1881, Headquarters U. S. Military Academy." 



If youth be the flower of a nation, and if it be in the 

 flower that we are to look for the promise of the future 

 fruit, surely no wiser steps could have been taken than 

 those indicated in the two orders just quoted — orders 

 which, being enforced, \vill certainly increase the vigor even 

 of the elect of our youth who constitute the membership" 

 of these two great national schools, and can hardly fail at 

 the same time to confer on them the graces of an added 

 refinement. 



Another point connected with the use of tobacco, the 

 consideration of which no physician can, and no parent 

 ought to overlook, is that of heredity — the question of 

 the transmission of various traits, not only to the imme- 

 diate descendants, but to those more remote. This 

 question is so extensive, and involves such important 

 considerations of family entailments and social and race 

 deterioration or elevation, that we trust we shall be par- 



