ing,
which follow its employment by a novice.

The morbid effects of tobacco upon the nervous system of those who
habitually use it are shown in the irregular and enfeebled action of the
heart, with dizziness and muscular tremor. The character of the pulse
shows plainly the unsteady heart action, caused by partial paralysis of
the nerves controlling this organ. Old, habitual smokers often show an
irritable and nervous condition, with sleeplessness, due doubtless to lack
of proper brain nutrition.

All these results tend to prove that tobacco is really a nerve poison, and
there is reason to suspect that the nervous breakdown of many men in
mature life is often due to the continued use of this depressing agent.
This is shown more especially in men of sedentary life and habits, as men
of active habits and out-door life, experience less of the ill effects of
tobacco.

Few, if any, habitual users of tobacco ever themselves approve of it. They
all regret the habit, and many lament they are so enslaved to it that they
cannot throw it off. They very rarely advise any one to follow their
example.

306. Effects of Tobacco on the Mind. With this continuously
depressing effect of tobacco upon the brain, it is little wonder that the
mind may become enfeebled and lose its capacity for study or successful
effort. This is especially true of the young. The growth and development
of the brain having been once retarded, the youthful user of tobacco
(especially the foolish cigarette-smoker) has established a permanent
drawback which may hamper him all his life.

The young man addicted to the use of tobacco is often through its use
retarded in his career by mental languor or weakening will power, and by
mental incapacity. The keenness of mental perception is dulled, and the
ability to seize and hold an abstract thought is impaired. True, these
effects are not sharply obvious, as it would be impossible to contrast the
present condition of any one person with what it might have been. But the
comparison of large numbers conveys an instructive lesson. Scholars who
start well and give promise of a good future fail by the way. The honors
of the great schools, academies, and colleges are very largely taken by
the tobacco abstainers. This is proved by the result of repeated and
extensive comparisons of the advanced classes in a great number of
institutions in this country and in Europe. So true is this that any young
man who aspires to a nobl