PHYSICAL AND INTELLECTUAL VIEW. 97 



"While it is indisputably the fact that a large 

 number of the cadets have learned to smoke before 

 admission to the academy, its compulsory inhibi- 

 tion during their academic career will be of in- 

 calculable benefit to them, as well as to all others 

 who now unfortunately acquire the habit here 

 through the example of their schoolmates. It is 

 almost impossible for the cadets, however young, 

 — and some enter at fourteen, — to avoid contract- 

 ing the habit, if his room-mate indulges ; and the 

 extent of this indulgence was instanced by one of 

 the officers in charge, who told me that some of 

 the rooms were so foul and offensive that it was 

 unpleasant to enter them. The medical officer of 

 the day was, not long since, called late at night to 

 attend a cadet in a state of extreme prostration 

 caused by tobacco ; and, although himself a smoker, 

 he declared the atmosphere of the room to be 

 repulsively stifling from tobacco smoke. I have 

 seen youths, fresh from graduation from this 

 school, go on board ships smoking rank, black- 

 ened pipes that would have nauseated many an 

 adult. 



"That the user of tobacco is incapable of con- 

 centrated mental effort is demonstrated b}^ the fact 

 told me by a member of the Academic Board, that 

 cadets have complained of their inability to apply 

 themselves to study and attain the class-standing 

 they desired on account of the excessive smoking 

 in their rooms, in which they were compelled to 

 indulge. 



