The Boy and the Cigarette
- Author:
Charles Keen Taylor.
Germantown Academy, Germantoicn, Philadelphia. Among the very interesting results gained by an examination of the records of over five hundred private-school boys, few are more interesting than those concerned with the effects of tobacco smoking, and particularly cigarette smoking. These records take boys from twelve years of age to seventeen, inclusive, many unusual circumstances making it possible to obtain a large number of very personal data, facts of which their parents may be?and probably are, after the usual manner of parents?quite ignorant. The first point to excite attention is the large number of those smoking. It must be remembered, of course, that many cases were unknown, from reluctance on the part of the boys to “incriminate” themselves. Nevertheless, it was found that among these five hundred boys, 15 per cent of the twelve-year-old boys either were smoking at the time the record was taken, or had smoked; 20 per cent of those thirteen years old; 38 per cent of those fourteen; 29 per cent of those fifteen; 57 per cent of those sixteen, and 71 per cent of those seventeen. In connection with this large percentage much might be said concerning the laxity of the laws which are supposed to regulate the sale of tobacco to boys.
Now these were private-school boys, who are generally supposed to have a better “looking after” than the public-school boys. It is therefore a natural inference that the percentages in the public schools must be considerably larger. But even if the number of smokers is only half as large, or even a quarter, it constitutes a very grave problem indeed. The record cards of these boys carried their school grades, as well as their physical characteristics, and were made solely for the private use of the writer. Let us see how the school grades of the non-smokers compare with those of the smokers. These grades are, of course, on the basis of 100 per cent, a rather cumbrous system, but handy. The grades average as follows: Age 12 13 14 15 16 17 Grade of non-smokers .. 83 ‘90 89 84 87 85 Grade of smokers 73 75 73 75 75 68
If these figures are correct, and the writer has every reason to believe them an under-estimate, cigarette smoking must have a serious effect on a boy’s mental development. Indeed, the writer has noticed that the “backward” boys in a class were almost always smokers, sometimes of long standing. Of course there are other habits among boys which tend to draw them to the bottom of the class, but in my experience boys possessing such habits are almost always smokers, though whether the smoking is the cause or merely an attendant phenomenon in such cases might be difficult to determine. Certain it is, however, that a boy’s energy is bound to be more or less weakened by the constant use of a narcotic, so that we can easily believe that smoking may be the fore-runner, if not the support, of other vices even more unpleasant.
As to physical effort, I have found that many of the older boys, who smoked when younger, are under normal size for their age, though I have also known many who have smoked continuously for some years, who are yet quite tall and broad. On the other hand I have found that these “tall” smokers are likely to be more than dull mentally, while the little stunted fellows are generally quite bright. This might lead us to think that smoking stunts “something”, varying with the boy, with one stopping the growth, with another stunting the mind, and with yet another, stunting both growth and mind.
Brief as this paper is, I trust that enough has been said to draw serious attention to the smoking menace, which is a reflection on the administrative anthOrities of our cities, on our schools, which fail to educate rationally upon the subject, and, worst of all, on our homes, where all right training is supposed to begin.
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