How to Live Part 24

In six educational inst.i.tutions the students competing for places on the football team were grouped as follows:

------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------ Number Number Per Cent.

Inst.i.tution. Competing Successful. Successful.

for Places. ------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------ _Inst.i.tution A._ Smokers 11 2 18.2 Non-smokers 19 11 57.9 _Inst.i.tution B._ Smokers 10 4 40 Non-smokers 25 17 68 _Inst.i.tution C._ Smokers 28 7 25 Non-Smokers 17 14 82 _Inst.i.tution D._ Smokers 28 11 39.3 Non-smokers 15 10 66.6 _Inst.i.tution E._ Smokers 10 7 70 Non-smokers 15 12 80 _Inst.i.tution F._ Smokers 6 0 0 Non-smokers 26 15 57.7 ------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------

SCHOLASTIC STANDING

---------+-------+-------++--------+-------+-------- Inst.i.tu- Smoker. Non- Inst.i.tu- Smoker. Non- tion. smoker. tion. smoker.

---------+-------+------- --------+-------+-------- A 65.2 69.8 G 74.0 75.0 B 64.7 74.6 H 75.2 79.4 C 78.8 81.1 I 81.6 88.4 D 75.8 77.6 J 78.5 81.3 E 84.6 84.8 K 74.0 84.6 F 69.6 71.3 L 77.3 77.6 ---------+-------+-------++--------+-------+--------

The following table shows the relative scholastic standing of smokers and non-smokers:

------------+--------------+-----------+------------- Number Total Average of Men. Mark. Mark.

------------+--------------+-----------+------------- Smokers 81 6,034 74.5 Non-smokers 101 8,021 79.4 ------------+--------------+-----------+-------------

Twelve inst.i.tutions reporting:

------------+--------------+-----------+------------- Number Highest Lowest of Men. Marks. Marks.

------------+--------------+-----------+------------- Smokers 81 4 12 Non-smokers 101 11 6 ------------+--------------+-----------+-------------

---------------------------+-----------+------------- Number of Highest Lowest Men. Marks. Marks.

---------------------------+-----------+------------- 101 non-smokers furnish 11 6 101 smokers would furnish 5 15 ---------------------------+-----------+-------------

------------+------------+----------------+---------- Number Total of Men. Conditions Average.

and Failures. ------------+------------+----------------+---------- Smokers 82 70 .853 Non-smokers 98 48 .439 ------------+------------+----------------+----------

[Sidenote: Tobacco Smoking Athletes]

Prof. Pack's conclusions were as follows:

1. Only half as many smokers as non-smokers are successful in the "try outs" for football squads.

2. In the case of able-bodied men smoking is a.s.sociated with loss of lung capacity amounting to practically 10 per cent.

3. Smoking is invariably a.s.sociated with low scholarship.

There have of course been many notable instances of high scholarship and prodigious mental achievement by heavy smokers. Such exceptions, however, do not affect conclusions derived from the study of average groups.

Hitherto figures on smoking and athletics have been open to question because comparisons were made between groups that are not of necessity of the same physical and mental type, having no important difference except in the use of tobacco. But Prof. Pack has sought to avoid this objection. As he points out, the football squad is probably as nearly a h.o.m.ogeneous group as it is possible to find. It seems reasonable to account for the inferior physical and mental work of these particular groups of smokers on the theory that in the main the well known toxic effects of tobacco are sufficient to create this difference.

Dr. George J. Fisher,[47] in a series of careful tests found:

1. Cigaret smoking caused an increase in the heart rate.

2. Cigaret smoking maintained a blood pressure which, under the circ.u.mstances of the experiment, would otherwise have dropped.

3. Cigar smoking caused a considerable increase in heart rate and blood pressure.

4. In a number of instances, in the cigar test, the heart was unable to maintain, with a vertical position, the increased blood pressure found in the horizontal position, showing a disturbance of the control of the blood vessels. This latter effect was more p.r.o.nounced in tests taken on non-smokers.

5. It was also noted that smoking was not conducive to concentration upon the reading, which the men attempted during the tests.

Bush,[48] in a series of tests on each of 15 men in several different psychic fields found the following conditions among smoking students immediately after the period of smoking was completed:

1. A 10 per cent. decrease in mental efficiency.

2. The greatest actual loss was in the field of imagery, 22 per cent.

3. The three greatest losses were in the fields of imagery, perception and a.s.sociation.

4. The greatest loss, in these experiments, occurred with cigarets.

Bush ascribed these effects to pyridin, claiming that his experiments failed to reveal nicotin in the tobacco smoke, except in a very small proportion in that of cigarets.

Tests for nicotin in smoke are beset with many difficulties and possible fallacies which have in the past misled investigators into apparently determining that tobacco smoke contained no nicotin, but simply decomposition products.

Pyridin is unquestionably present in tobacco smoke, and is a poisonous substance, although less so than nicotin. It is not found, however, in chewing tobacco, and as the clinical effects of chewing tobacco are apparently identical with those of smoking tobacco, very strong and universally accepted chemical proof of the absence of nicotin from tobacco smoke must be awaited before accepting such a conclusion.

(See([41]), ([42]), ([43]) in bibliography.)

Cigaret smoking is a time waster; that is, it breaks up the power of attention, as few smokers are satisfied with one cigaret and the mere physical act of lighting a fresh cigaret disturbs the continuity of thought and work. Dr. W. J. Mayo[49] calls attention to the fact that according to his observations research scholars who smoke cigarets have not done well.

[Sidenote: Insurance Experience on Tobacco Smokers]

Only one insurance company, the New England Mutual,[50] has published any experience on tobacco users. This covered a period of 60 years and a body of 180,000 policyholders, as follows:

RATIO OF ACTUAL TO EXPECTED MORTALITY.[M]

------------------------------------------------------- ABSTAINERS. RARELY USE. TEMPERATE. MODERATE.

-------------- ------------- ------------ ------------- Tobacco, 59% 71% 84% 93% Alcohol, 57% 72% 84% 125% -------------------------------------------------------

[M] The standard here used is the American Experience Table, which is largely an artificial table upon which premiums are based, but which provides for a much higher mortality than the average companies sustain.

For example, the actual mortality of the New England Mutual in 1913 was 57 per cent. of the expected.

[Sidenote: Interpretation]

Fifty-nine per cent. of the expected mortality means that where, according to the premium tables, 100 were expected to die, only 59 actually died.

The general cla.s.s of risks in this company were of excellent quality, as the figures show. Nevertheless, the abstainers exhibited a far lower mortality than that experienced by the general cla.s.s.

Dr. Edwin Wells Dwight, who presented the figures, urged caution in their interpretation, suggesting that the low mortality among abstainers, both from alcohol and tobacco, might well be due to a more conservative habit of living. Furthermore, as the abstainers from alcohol were not separated from the abstainers from tobacco in this a.n.a.lysis a perfect comparison can not be made; but our knowledge of the toxic effects of both these narcotics and the preceding statistics of Doctor Pack justify us in a.s.signing to tobacco a positively unfavorable effect.

[Sidenote: Poisonous Effects]

Experiments on animals with nicotin extracts from tobacco and inhalation of tobacco smoke have produced hardening of the large arteries. Clinical observation by some of the world's best authorities indicates that the same conditions are brought about in man by heavy smoking.[51]

Disturbance of the blood pressure, rapid heart action, shortness of breath, palpitation of the heart, pain in the region of the heart, are important effects. Tobacco heart is often lightly spoken of because the abandonment of the habit will often restore the heart to its normal condition, but tobacco heart sometimes causes death, especially under severe physical strain or in the course of acute disease, such as typhoid or pneumonia. Surgeons[52] have noted failure to rally after operation in tobacco users, who are, of course, deprived of their accustomed indulgence immediately before and after operation. It is probable that many such cases pa.s.s unrecognized, although the alcoholic is usually supplied the narcotic his system demands.