PHYSICAL AND INTELLECTUAL VIEW. 37 



Brest, where the students were allowed to smoke 

 half an hour every morning and evening. After 

 one year's study, eight smokers so fell in their 

 rank that they M lost between them one hundred 

 and twenty-three places." 



Dr. Constan thus concludes his article : " The 

 depressing action of tobacco on the intellectual 

 development is, therefore, beyond question. Its 

 influence clogs all the intellectual faculties, and 

 especially the memory. It is greater in propor- 

 tion to the youth of the individual and the facili- 

 ties allowed him for smoking." 



It having been thus clearly established that the 

 students who do not smoke outrank those who do, 

 and that the scholarship of the smokers steadily 

 deteriorates as the smoking continues, we are not 

 surprised to learn that the Minister of Public In- 

 struction issued a circular to the various teachers 

 in all the schools of every grade, forbidding tobacco 

 as injurious to physical and intellectual develop- 

 ment. Indeed, so much anxiety is felt concerning 

 the decreasing stature of the French — some of 

 the most eminent scientists ascribing it to tobacco 

 — that the question of prohibiting this drug to all 

 classes of children and youth is under considera- 

 tion. 



It is pleasant to state that the Council of Berne 

 in Switzerland has issued such a prohibition to boys 

 under fifteen. 



A report by the Medical Department of the Uni- 

 ted States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Md., enu- 



4.2037.1 



