poisons their blood, stunts their growth, weakens the mind, and makes them lazy. "It is not easy," says Mr. Ruskin, "to estimate the demoralizing effect of the cigar on the youth of Europe in enabling them to pass their time happily in idleness." It has been forbidden at Annapolis, the Naval School, and at West Point, the Military Academy of the United States, having been found injurious to the health, discipline, and power of study of the students. "At Harvard College," says Dr. Dio Lewis, "no young man addicted to the use of tobacco has graduated at the head of his class;" and at the lycees of Douai, Saint Quentin, and Chambery it has been found that the smokers are inferior to non-smokers. No public enquiry has yet been made as to the influence of tobacco upon English youths, but I am assured by several leading schoolmasters that the smokers are invariably the worst scholars. It cannot be too widely known, therefore, that tobacco, like alcohol, is of no advantage to a healthy student, and I advise young men to avoid it altogether. Darwin regretted that he had acquired the habit of snuff taking, and Mr. Sala says that had he his life to live over again, he would never touch tobacco in any shape or form. Never begun, never needed. "I do not advise you, young man," says Oliver Wendell Holmes, "to consecrate the flower of your life to painting the bowl of a pipe, for, let me assure you, the stain of a reverie-breeding narcotic may strike deeper than you think. I have seen the green leaf of early promise grown brown before its time under such nicotian regimen, and thought the amber'd meerschaum was dearly bought at the cost of a brain enfeebled and a will enslaved." My conclusions, then, are as follows:-- 1.--Alcohol and tobacco are no value to a healthy student. 2.--That the most vigorous thinkers and hardest workers abstain from both stimulants. 3.--That those who have tried both moderation and total abstinence find the latter the more healthful practice. 4.--That almost every brain-worker would be the better for abstinence. 5.--That the most abstruse calculations may be made, and the most laborious mental work performed, without artificial stimulus. 6.--That all work done under the influence of _alcohol_ is unhealthy work. 7.--That the only pure brain stimulants are _external_ ones-- fresh air, cold water; walking, riding, and other out-door exercises. INDEX. Abstinence and dyspepsia Do. benefits of Alcohol dangerous Do. a stupefier Do. and speech-making Do. not a necessity Do. hurtful to the liver Do. a restorative Do. useful under exceptional circumstances Do. and digestion Do. as a medicine Do. and gout Do. bad for rheumatism Do. as a soother Do. as a stimulant to the brain Do. necessity of, to aid the subsidence of the brain Do. abstinence from, followed by over-eating Do. and longevity Air, fresh, importance of American boys, tobacco forbidden to Athletics, love of