270 TOBACCO. 



should enter into obligations not to sell to those 

 below a certain age, and that any person should 

 have a right to enter complaint against children 

 found to be indulging this habit. Besides the 

 direct effect on impaired physical vigor, there is 

 another view not enough considered, — the power 

 of choice, self-control, self-restraint. Will-power, 

 in its best sense, is the greatest power beneath the 

 sky. The freedom of the will is far more than a 

 theological doctrine. It is the reserve hope of 

 manhood, and not only decides individual charac- 

 ter and destiny, but social and national destiny 

 also. Our most outspoken quarrel with tobacco, 

 as with other stimulants and narcotics, is this : that, 

 indulged in so early, they so affect the brain and 

 nervous system that habits become dominant and 

 uncontrollable, which lead to a general loss of self- 

 restraint. \Ye hear much discussion as to whether 

 intemperance is a disease. The real disease that 

 is gaining ground is debility in self-restraint ; it 

 is producing that debility among the young. To- 

 bacco is the most threatening power. It leads 

 often to intemperance, to a general yielding of 

 self-control, and so to many an evil greater than 

 that of physical infirmity." 



The following is from the widely known Nathan 

 Allen, M.D., LL.D., of Lowell, Mass., who has 

 written ably on Hereditary Diseases, Laws of 

 Inheritance, and on various subjects connected 

 with physiology : — 



