“The effect of nicotine on the growth is very measurable, and the following figures are presented as a fairly satisfactory demonstration of the extent of the interference with growth that may be expected in boys from sixteen to twenty-five years of age, when they are believed to have reached full maturity. For purposes of comparison the men composing a class in Yale have been divided into three groups. The first is made up of those who do not use tobacco in any form; the second consists of those who have used tobacco for at least a year of the college course; the third group includes the irregular users. A compilation of the anthropometric data on this basis shows that during the period of undergraduate life, which is essentially three and a half years, the first group grows in weight 10.4 per cent. more than the second, and 6.6 per cent. more than the third; in girth of chest the first group grows 26.7 per cent. more than the second, and 23 per cent, more than the third; in capacity of lungs the first group gains 77.5 per cent. more than the second, and 49.5 per cent. more than the third.” The figures quoted above furnish a powerful and convincing argument against the use of tobacco in any form by the person who has not attained maturity. The cigarette is generally considered the most pernicious form in which tobacco can be used and this is the form in which boys generally begin its use. Both before and after puberty the boy is imitative of his elders. “The boy apes the man” and the desire to appear “manly” in the eyes of his companions is one of the strongest incentives to acquire the habit. As smoking is common among men, he seeks to acquire this evidence of masculinity by adopting its semblance. It possesses an insidious attraction in its daintiness and apparent harmlessness. The phenomenon of combustion, the ascending ribbon of smoke which vanishes to nothingness, the cohesiveness of the ash, the experiment of blowing smoke rings in the air and the curiosity to learn the effect of smoking on the individual, all are powerful incitements to the inquisitive mind of a boy. The cigarette habit is usually contracted during the period of adolescence, or even earlier, when the organs, glands, tissues, and muscles of his body are in a formative stage of development. It requires no corroboration from medical experts to convince the man of average intelligence that such a powerful narcotic as nicotine cannot be beneficial to growth under these conditions. Common sense as well as expert opinion join in condemning the nicotine drug habit of children. You will find nicotine classified in pharmacopœias as a drug whose effects are somewhat similar to those of opium and morphine. From 3 to 8 per cent. of tobacco is composed of nicotine, of which 50 to 60 per cent. is inhaled in smoking, the remainder being consumed in combustion.