36 TOBACCO. 



School in Paris are given in the Dublin Medical 

 Press: "It is shown that smokers have proved 

 themselves, in the various competitive examina- 

 tions, far inferior to others. Not only in the ex- 

 aminations on entering the school are they in a 

 lower rank, but in the various ordeals of the year 

 the average rank of the smoker has constantly 

 fallen." 



Science and Health contains the translation of a 

 report on this subject by Dr. Constan, one of the 

 medical men employed in the investigations spoken 

 of, and which covered the ground from 1876 to 

 1880. He says : " Our inquiries have extended to 

 three groups of educational establishments, viz. : 

 primary, secondary, and higher, or special schools. 

 Whether the use of tobacco is entirely prohibited, 

 or only indulged in surreptitiously, or on going-out 

 days, or permitted under certain restrictions, and 

 consequently more largely practised, the figures 

 show that it affects the quality of the studies in a 

 constant ratio, and this influence is more marked in 

 the different establishments where tobacco is more 

 extensively used." 



Dr. Constan gives statistics with regard to the 

 grammar schools of Douai, St. Quentin, and Cham- 

 bery, the primary and the higher normal schools of 

 Douai, with the military school at the same place, 

 and also that at Saumur. The general results in 

 all these schools are substantially the same as those 

 in the Polytechnic School at Paris. Still more 

 striking results are given as to the Naval School at 



