An enormous number of live young
men are being hurt by shells, hurt by bullets, hurt by fever and hunger
and horror of hope deferred; hurt by lance blades and sword blades and
bayonet blades breaking into the bloody house of life. But Mr. Price (I
think that's his name) is still anxious that they should not be hurt by
cigarettes. That is the sort of maniacal isolation that can be found in
the deserts of Bromley. That cigarettes are bad for the health is a very
tenable opinion to which the minister is quite entitled. If he happens to
think that the youth of Bromley smoke too many cigarettes, and that he has
any influence in urging on them the unhealthiness of the habit, I should
not blame him if he gave sermons or lectures about it (with magic-lantern
slides), so long as it was in Bromley and about Bromley. Cigarettes may
be bad for the health: bombs and bayonets and even barbed wire are not
good for the health. I never met a doctor who recommended any of them.
But the trouble with this sort of man is that he cannot adjust himself to
the scale of things. He would do very good service if he would go among
the rich aristocratic ladies and tell them not to take drugs in a chronic
sense, as people take opium in China. But he would be doing very bad
service if he were to go among the doctors and nurses on the field and
tell them not to give drugs, as they give morphia in a hospital.
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