240 OUR BODIES AND HOW WE LIVE 



324. Effects of Tobacco upon Young People. Tobacco, 

 in any form, has a peculiarly injurious effect upon young 

 and growing persons. 1 It not only stunts their growth, 

 but produces a weakened state of the system, which tends 

 greatly to impair muscular and mental activity. The pro- 

 found effect that tobacco has upon the nervous system 

 after the first trial of smoking or chewing is matter of 

 familiar experience. 



Even after the system gets used to the narcotic, young 

 people continue to surfer oftentimes from nausea, dizziness, 

 headache, muscular trembling, loss of appetite, and general 

 weakness. 



Here is one bit of advice for you to remember all the 

 days of your life : Do not smoke or chew tobacco if you 

 wish to keep strong and well, and to succeed in life. 



325. The Use of Tobacco from a Moral Point of View. 

 The effect of tobacco on the moral nature often shows 

 itself in a selfish disregard for the rights of others. The 

 smoker has no right to make with his tobacco smoke the 

 air about him unfit for others to breathe. He has no 

 right to puff his smoke into the faces of people on the 

 streets, or thus to pollute the air of public places which 

 others are obliged to share with him. 



The fact that he does this knowing that to many people 

 the smoke of tobacco is offensive, and that some are even 



1 While tobacco is injurious to every one, it is far more harmful to those 

 who are growing. A boy who uses tobacco can never have the strength 

 of body or the vigor of mind he would have had except for its use. Boys 

 and young men entering the employ of a great business house or a corpo- 

 ration where their success depends upon strength, alertness, skill, and 

 accuracy, as well as integrity and industry, would surely reach a much 

 higher success if they abstained totally from all narcotics. WINFIELD S. 

 HALL, M.D., Northwestern University Medical School, Chicago. 



