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Show EFFECTS OF SMOKING . OK SCHOOL GRADES N y r -v Tho following report was published for tho first tlmo In The Psychological Psychologi-cal Clinic, Vol. 7. it'glves tin results re-sults of extended observations nmong school children, both of public and private schools. It Is a part of Mr. Taylor's reply to Dr. Hlrschfleld: Let us first consider records taken from 450 prlvato school boys, boys of what wo are pleased to term the "upper middle class." Records were tnkpn nf bnva nf from twplvo In rrv- enteen years Inclusive. It was found that 15 per cent of the twelve year old boys, 20 per cent of the thirteen year old boys, 57 per cent of Ttie seventeen sev-enteen year old boys were either regular reg-ular or occasional smokers. Is It likely that 71 per cent of the boys In these schools were born stupid? It is not likely. Now follow tho grades for theso boys, contrasting those of the non-smokers with those ot the smokers. These grades were averaged aver-aged from their school reports for 'threo successive months and Included Includ-ed marks for lessons as well as for conduct. Age 12 13 14 15 16 17 Grade, nonsmokers 83 90 89 84 87 85 Grade, smokers... 73 75 73 75 75 63 Even considering Uio fact that the smoker Is likely to bo an outdoor boy mill lai tf o nntltfnl ati,1nM ln .. J sequence than the non-smoker, these figures aro rather significant. Let us now consider a group of 2C3 public school chlldrei, twelve ears old and older, In rndes from Fifth B to Eighth IJ inclusive . These boys wcro pupils In a public school of very flno type hnd hlgl'v standing, and in a good neighborhood. neighbor-hood. Tho average for each class was found, and then tho boys who were older or younger thnn tho average av-erage wore studied not only as to their smoking that was merely incidentalbut in-cidentalbut as to many other interesting inter-esting data. But with regard to tobacco, to-bacco, this was found of tho boys vho were two years younger than tho average for their c'ass, 2.3 per cent wcro smokers, of those ono year younger than tho average 10. G ,per cent were smokers. Boys of the average av-erage age included 38 per cent smokers. smok-ers. Boys a year older than the average av-erage had 41.2 per cent of their number num-ber smokers, Simper cent of those three years over nverago. This is rather significant. But, you'sny, the older boys would naturally possess a higher percentage of smokers anyway. any-way. Well, let us cons'der all of the boys of one. age in theso grades. Taking Tak-ing all those of twely years of age wo find that In the highest grade thero wero no smokers ot this ago and none In the noxt lower grade; In tho next, 14 per cent of the twelvo year old boys woro smokers; in the next lower 16.7 per cent; In the next 20 per cent; and in tho noxt 23 per cent. Although wo cannot concede that theso boys smoked because they wero "born stupid," wo can see plainly that tho boys who aro advanced for their ago are not smokers. , while, thoso who ore low for their ago aro so in considerable proportion, A study was made of ihoJ'dlseaBo" records of theso 2C2 bojs. Tho total to-tal percentage of-smokers was 30 4 tier cent. Now If smoking had no offect, wo would bo likely to seo the proportion of smokers having had "stomach trouble" to the non-Bmok-ors having had the samo disorder to be tho same as above, that Is 30 4 ' par cent. Such however, Is nuythlng but tho case. Tho records show that ".'. t'.:o boys having "nervo disorders," dis-orders," all, that is 100 per cent, wero smokois. Of nil having "stomach troubles" 71.4 per cent wcro smokers. Perhaps this was caused by swallowing swallow-ing smoko and nicotine laden Ballvn. Ot thoso having typhoid pneumonia, 1 50 per cent wero smokers and the samo Is truo of appendicitis. Of all who had diphtheria, 38,5 per cent wa-e smokers, and of those having disorders In the naso-pharynx 37 per cent wcro smokers. These percentages, percent-ages, you will note, are all larger than the legitimate proportion of 30.4 per cent as noted above. It is only when wo consider tho common diseases of early childhood, wh'ch come before the "smoking age," that wo find the proportion the one that Dr. Hlrschfleld would expect for it Is exactly 30.4 per cent as ono would suppose. President Wilson himself does not smoke. He does not even know a "good cigar when ho sees It. The widely published communication communica-tion that Mrs. Wilson sent to the press read: "I beg leave Indignantly to deny that I approve ot women smoking clgarets. I intensely dls; llko tho clgaret smoking habit In fact, so strong is my feeling on the subject that my real danger lies In bo.'ng unjust and unkind In my Judgment Judg-ment of those who differ from me In this respect. 'Certainly no woman In our household ever has smoked, or ever will." |