SMOKING AND SCHOLARSHIP 
485 
370. Smoking and Scholarship. — Several thousand boys 
have been studied and classified according to age and whether 
they were smokers or non-smokers. In all cases the non- 
smokers had a higher average grade of scholarship. The 
experience of city superintendents and principals is that they 
can usually tell a cigarette boy by his general attitude, poor 
scholarship, and disregard of personal appearance. 
When cigarettes are burned, three distinct poisons are 
produced, which cause serious effects on the boys who use 
tobacco in this form. These poisons are absorbed in small 
quantities by the mucous membrane which lines the nasal 
passages and in larger quantities when the smoke is inhaled 
in the lungs. 
A simple way to prove that cigarette smoke contains a 
poison is by blowing the smoke through a glass tube into 
an aquarium containing goldfish. Only a small amount of 
smoke will kill the fish. 
While we all can gradually adapt ourselves to small 
amounts of poison, poisons are never beneficial unless pre¬ 
scribed by a physician to try to remedy some bodily defect. 
The poisons which arise from the burning of a cigarette 
are never prescribed even as medicines, and have never 
been found in any way beneficial to the human body. 
SUMMARY 
The nervous system of all vertebrates consists of a brain 
and spinal cord with nerves passing to all organs of the 
body. The brain of man is the most highly developed. 
All our movements are controlled by means of the nervous 
system. Through our sense organs we gain our information 
of the world. 
The nervous system is made up of cells which are highly 
specialized. Their main work is to transmit and interpret 
stimuli. The nerves of man are so highly specialized that 
all stimuli which affect the eye are thought by us to be light 
