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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/6752.txt b/6752.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..443348a --- /dev/null +++ b/6752.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5377 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Study and Stimulants, by A. Arthur Reade + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Study and Stimulants + +Author: A. Arthur Reade + +Release Date: October, 2004 [EBook #6752] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on January 23, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STUDY AND STIMULANTS *** + + + + +Produced by Beth L. Constantine, David Moynihan, Charles Franks +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + +STUDY AND STIMULANTS; + + + +OR, + + +THE USE OF INTOXICANTS AND NARCOTICS IN RELATION TO INTELLECTUAL LIFE, + +AS ILLUSTRATED BY PERSONAL COMMUNICATIONS ON THE SUBJECT, +FROM MEN OF LETTERS AND OF SCIENCE. + + + + + +EDITED BY A. ARTHUR READE. + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + + +The real influence of the intoxicants and narcotics in common use has +been a matter of fierce and prolonged controversy. The most opposite +opinions have been set forth with ability and earnestness; but the +weight they would otherwise carry is lessened by their mutually +contradictor-y character. Notwithstanding the great influence of the +physician's authority, people are perplexed by the blessings and +bannings bestowed upon tobacco and the various forms of alcohol. + +What is the real influence of stimulants and narcotics upon the brain? +Do they give increased strength, greater lucidity of mind and more +continuous power? Do they weaken and cloud the intellect, and lessen +that capacity for enduring a prolonged strain of mental exertion which +is one of the first requisites of the intellectual life? Would a man +who is about to enter upon the consideration of problems, the correct +solution of which will demand all the strength and agility of his +mind, be helped or hindered by their use? These are questions which +are asked every day, and especially by the young, who seek in vain for +an adequate reply. The student grappling with the early difficulties +of science and literature, wishes to know whether he will be wiser to +use or to abstain from stimulants. + +The theoretical aspect of the question has perhaps been sufficiently +discussed; but there still remains the practical inquiry,--"What has +been the experience of those engaged in intellectual work?" Have men +of science--the inventors, the statesmen, the essayists, and novelists +of our own day--found advantage or the reverse in the use of alcohol +and tobacco? + +The problem has for years exercised my thoughts, and with the hope of +arriving at _data_ which would be trustworthy and decisive, I +entered upon an independent inquiry among the representatives of +literature, science, and art, in Europe and America. The replies were +not only numerous, but in most cases covered wider ground than that +originally contemplated. Many of the writers give details of their +habits of work, and thus, in addition to the value of the testimony on +this special topic, the letters throw great light upon the methods of +the intellectual life. + +To each writer, and especially to Dr. Alex. Bain, Mr. R. E. +Francillon, Mark Twain, Mr. E. O'Donovan, Mr. J E. Boehm, Professor +Dowden, the Rev. Dr. Martineau, Count Gubernatis, the Abbe Moigno, and +Professor Magnus, who have shown hearty interest in the enquiry, I +tender my best thanks for contributing to the solution of the +important problem of the value of stimulants; also to Mr. W. E. A. +Axon for suggestive and much appreciated help. I should, however, be +glad of further testimonies for use in a second edition. + +_January_, 1883. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +I. Introduction + + +II. LETTERS FROM: + +Abbot, The Rev. Dr. + +Allibone, Mr. S. Astin + +Argyll, The Duke of, F. R. S. + +Arnold, Mr. Matthew + +Ayrton, Professor + +Bain, Dr. Alexander + +Ball, Professor Robert S., LL. D., F. R. S. + +Bancroft, Mr. Hubert Howe + +Baxendell, Mr. Joseph, F. R. A. S. + +Beard, Dr. G. M. + +Bert, Professor Paul + +Blackie, Professor John Stuart + +Blanc, M. Louis + +Boehm, Mr. J. E., R. A. + +Bredencamp, Dr. + +Brown, Mr. Ford Madox, R. A. + +Buchanan, Mr. Robert + +Buddenseig, Dr. + +Burnaby, Captain Fred + +Butler, Lieut. Col. W. F. + +Burnton, Dr. Lauder, F. R. S. + +Camp, Madame du + +Carpenter, Dr. W. B., C. B., LL. D., F. R. S. + +Chambers, Mr. William, LL. D + +Childs, Mr. George W. + +Claretie, M. Jules + +Clarke, Mr. Hyde, F. S. S. + +Collins, Mr. Wilkie + +Conway, Mr. Moncure D., M. A. + +Dallenger, Rev. W. H., F. R. S + +Darwin, Professor + +Dawkins, W. Boyd, M. A., F. R. S., F. G. S. + +D'Orsey, The Rev. Alex. J. D., B. D. + +O'Donovon, Mr. Edmund + +Dowden, Professor, LL. D. + +Edison, Professor + +Ellis, Mr. Alex. J., F. R. S., F. S. A. + +Everett, Professor + +Fairbairn, Professor R. M. + +Francillon, Mr. R. E. + +Freeman, Mr. Edward A., D. C. L., LL. D. + +Furnivall, Mr. F. J., M. A. + +Gardiner, Mr. Samuel R., Hon. LL. D. + +Gladstone, Rt. Hon. W. E., M. P. + +Greville, Mdlle. II + +Gubernatis, Count + +Guenin, M. L. P. + +Guy, Dr. William + +Haeckel, Professor Ernst + +Hamerton, Mr. Philip Gilbert + +Hardy, Mr. Thomas + +Harrison, Mr. Frederic + +Henty, Mr. G. A. + +Holmes, Mr. Oliver Wendell + +Holyoake, Mr. George Jacob + +Hooker, Sir J. D., F. R. S. + +Howells, Mr. W. D. + +Joule, Dr. J. P. + +Lansdell, The Rev. Henry + +Leathes, Rev. Stanley, D. D. + +Lecky, W. E. H. + +Lees, Dr. F. R. + +Levi, Mr. Leone, F. S. A. + +Lubbock, Sir John, Bart. M. P. + +Magnus, Professor + +Maitland, Mr. Edward, B. A. + +Martin, Sir Theodore, K. C. B. + +Martineau, The Rev. James, D. D. + +Maudsley, Dr. Henry + +May, Sir Thomas Erskine, K. C. B., D. C. L. + +Mayor, Rev. John E. B., M. A. + +Moigno, The Abbe + +Morrison, Rev. J., D. D. + +Mongredien, Mr. Augustus + +Murray, Dr. J. A. H. + +Murray, Mr. D. Christie. + +Newman, Professor + +Pattison, The Rev. Mark, B. D. + +Payn, Mr. James + +Pitman, Mr. Eizak + +Plaute, M. Gaston + +Plummer, The Rev. A. + +Pocknell, Mr. Edward + +Rawlinson, Professor George + +Reade, Mr. Charles + +Reed, Mr. Thomas Allen + +Rodenberg, Dr. Julius + +Russell, Dr. W. H. + +Ruskin, Mr. John + +Sen, Keshub Chunder + +Simon, M. Jules + +Skeat, Professor + +St. Hilaire, M. Barthelemy + +Spottiswoode, Mr. W., D. C. L., LL. D. + +Siemens, Dr. C. W., D. C. L., F. R. S. + +Smith, Mr. G. Barnett + +Taine, M. + +Trollope, Mr. Anthony + +Thomson, Sir William, M. A., LL. D., D. C. L., F. R. S. + +Trantmann, Professor + +Tyndall, Professor, LL. D., F. R. S. + +Tourgueneff, Mr. Ivan + +Twain, Mark + +Walford, Mr. Cornelius, F. S. S., F. I. A. + +Watts, Mr. G. F., R. A. + +Wilson, Professor Andrew, Ph. D., F. R. S. E. + +Winser, Mr. Justin + +Wurtz, M. + + +III. APPENDIX + +TESTIMONIES OF: + +Bennett, Dr. Risdon + +Brooke, The Rev. Stopford A., M. A. + +Bryant, William C. + +Chambers, Dr. King + +Fraser, Professor Thomas R. + +Herkomer, Hubert, A. R. A. + +Higginson, Colonel Thomas Wentworth + +Howitt, William + +Kingsley, The Rev. Charles + +Martineau, Harriet + +Miller, Professor + +Proctor, Mr. R. A., F. R. S. + +Richardson, Dr. B. W., F. R. S. + +Sala, Mr. George Augustus + +Temple, Bishop + +Thompson, Sir Henry, F. R. C. S. + +Williams, Mr. W. Mattieu, F. R. A. S., F. C. S. + +Yeo, Dr. Bumey, M. D. + + +IV. CONCLUSION + + + + +STUDY AND STIMULANTS + + + + +THE REV. DR. ABBOT, +EDITOR OF THE "CHRISTIAN UNION," NEW YORK. + + +I have no experience whatever respecting tobacco: my general opinion +is adverse to its use by a healthy man; but that opinion is not +founded on any personal experience, nor on any scientific knowledge, +as to give it any value for others. My opinion respecting alcohol is +that it is a valuable and necessary ingredient in forming and +preserving some articles of diet--yeast bread, for example, which can +only be produced by fermentation--and that its value in the lighter +wines, those in which it is found in, a ratio of from 5 to 10 per +cent., is of the same character. It preserves for use other elements +in the juice of the grape. As a stimulant, alcohol is, in my opinion, +at once a deadly poison and a valuable medicine, to be ranked with +belladonna, arsenic, prussic acid, and other toxical agents, which can +never be safely dispensed with by the medical faculty, nor safely used +by laymen as a stimulant, except under medical advice. As to my +experience, it is very limited; and, in my judgment, it is quite +unsafe in this matter to make one man's experience another man's +guide: too much depends upon temperamental and constitutional +peculiarities, and upon special conditions of climate and the like. + +1. I have no experience respecting distilled spirits; I regard them as +highly dangerous, and have never used them except under medical +advice, and then only in rare and serious cases of illness. 2. Beers +and the lighter wines, if taken before mental work, always--in my +experience--impair the working powers. They do not facilitate, but +impede brain action. 3. After an exceptionally hard day's work, when +the nervous power is exhausted, and the stomach is not able to digest +and assimilate the food which the system needs, a glass of light wine, +taken with the dinner, is a better aid to digestion than any other +medicine that I know. To serve this purpose, its use--in my opinion-- +should be exceptional, not habitual: it is a medicine, not a beverage. +4. After nervous excitement in the evening, especially public +speaking, a glass of light beer serves a useful purpose as a sedative, +and ensures at times a good sleep, when without it the night would be +one of imperfect sleep. + +I must repeat that my experience is very limited; that in my judgment +the cases which justify a man in so overtaxing his system that he +requires a medicine to enable him to digest his dinner or enjoy his +sleep must be rare; and that my own use of either wine or beer is very +exceptional. Though I am not in strictness of speech a total +abstinence man, I am ordinarily a water drinker. + +LYMAN ABBOT. +March 11, 1882. + + + + +MR. S. AUSTIN ALLIBONE, NEW YORK. + + +I have no doubt that the use of alcohol as a rule is very injurious to +all persons--authors included. In about 17 years (1853-1870), in which +I was engaged on the "Dictionary of English Literature and Authors," I +never took it but for medicine, and very seldom. Moderate smoking +after meals I think useful to those who use their brains much; and +this seems to have been the opinion of the majority of the physicians +who took part in the controversy in the _Lancet_ about ten or +twelve years since. An energetic non-smoker is in haste to rush to his +work soon after dinner. A smoker is willing to rest (it should be for +an hour), because he can enjoy his cigar, and his conscience is +satisfied, which is a great thing for digestion; the brain is soothed +also. + +S. AUSTIN ALLIBONE. +March 27, 1882. + + + + +THE DUKE OF ARGYLL, F. R. S. + + +In answer to your question, I can only say that during by far the +greatest part of my life I never took alcohol in any form; and that +only in recent years I have taken a small fixed quantity under medical +advice, as a preventive of gout. Tobacco I have never touched. + +ARGYLL. +October 2, 1882. + + + + +MR. MATTHEW ARNOLD. + + +In reply to your enquiry, I have to inform you that I have never +smoked, and have always drunk wine, chiefly claret. As to the use of +wine, I can only speak for myself. Of course, there is the danger of +excess; but a healthy nature and the power of self-control being +presupposed, one can hardly do better, I should think, than "follow +nature" as to what one drinks, and its times and quantity. As a +general rule, I drink water in the middle of the day; and a glass or +two of sherry, and some light claret, mixed with water, at a late +dinner; and this seems to suit me very well. I have given up beer in +the middle of the day, not because I experienced that it did not suit +me, but because the doctor assured me that it was bad for rheumatism, +from which I sometimes suffer. I suppose most young people could do as +much without wine as with it. Real brain-work of itself, I think, +upsets the worker, and makes him bilious; wine will not cure this, nor +will abstaining from wine prevent it. But, in general, wine used in +moderation seems to add to the _agreeableness_ of life--for +adults, at any rate; and whatever adds to the agreeableness of life +adds to its resources and powers. + +MATTHEW ARNOLD. +November 4, 1882. + + + + +PROFESSOR AYRTON + + +Has no very definite opinions as to the effects of tobacco and alcohol +upon the mind and health, but as he is not in the habit of either +taking alcohol or of smoking, he cannot regard those habits as +essential to mental exertion. + +April 21, 1882. + + + + +DR. ALEXANDER BAIN, +LORD RECTOR OF ABERDEEN UNIVERSITY. + + +I am interested in the fact that anyone is engaged in a thorough +investigation of the action of stimulants. Although the subject falls +under my own studies in some degree, I am a very indifferent testimony +as far as concerns personal experience. On the action of tobacco, I am +disqualified to speak, from never having used it. As to the other +stimulants--alcohol and the tea group--I find abstinence essential to +intellectual effort. They induce a false excitement, not compatible +with severe application to problems of difficulty. They come in well +enough at the end of the day as soothing, or cheering, and also as +diverting the thoughts into other channels. In my early intercourse +with my friend; Dr. Carpenter, when he was a strict teetotaler, he +used to discredit the effect of alcohol in soothing the excitement of +prolonged intellectual work. I have always considered, however, that +there is something in it. Excess of tea I have good reason to +deprecate; I take it only once a day. The difficulty that presses upon +me on the whole subject is this:--In organic influences, you are not +at liberty to lay down the law of concomitant variations without +exception, or to affirm that what is bad in large quantities, is +simply less bad when the quantity is small. There may be proportions +not only innocuous, but beneficial; reasoning from the analogy of the +action of many drugs which present the greatest opposition of effect +in different quantities. I mean this--not with reference to the +inutility for intellectual stimulation, in which I have a pretty clear +opinion as regards myself--but as to the harmlessness in the long run, +of the employment of stimulants for solace and pleasure when kept to +what we call moderation. A friend of mine heard Thackeray say that he +got some of his best thoughts when driving home from dining out, with +his skin full of wine. That a man might get chance suggestions by the +nervous excitement, I have no doubt; I speak of the serious work of +composition. John Stuart Mill never used tobacco; I believe he had +always a moderate quantity of wine to dinner. He frequently made the +remark that he believed the giving up of wine would be apt to be +followed by taking more food than was necessary, merely for the sake +of stimulation. Assuming the use of stimulants after work to aid the +subsidence of the brain, I can quite conceive that tobacco may operate +in this way, as often averred; but I should have supposed that any +single stimulant would be enough: as tobacco for those abstaining +entirely from alcohol, and using little tea or coffee. + +ALEXANDER BAIN. +March 6, 1882. + + + + +PROFESSOR ROBERT S. BALL, LL. D., F. R. S., +ANDREWS PROFESSOR OF ASTRONOMY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF DUBLIN, AND ROYAL +ASTRONOMER OF IRELAND. + + +I fear my experience can be of little use to you. I have never smoked +except once--when at school; I then got sick, and have never desired +to smoke since. I have not paid particular attention to the subject, +but I have never seen anything to make me believe that tobacco was of +real use to intellectual workers. I have known of people being injured +by smoking too much, but I never heard of anyone suffering from not +smoking at all. + +ROBERT S. BALL. +February 13, 1882. + + + + +MR. HUBERT HOWE BANCROFT, +SAN FRANCISCO. + + +In my opinion, some constitutions are benefited by a moderate use of +tobacco and alcohol; others are not. But to touch these things is +dangerous. + +H. H. BANCROFT. +May 6, 1882. + + + + +MR. JOSEPH BAXENDELL, F. R. A. S. + +I fear that my experience of the results of the use of stimulants will +not aid you much in your enquiry. Although I am not a professed +teetotaler or anti-smoker, practically I may say I am one: and when I +am engaged in literary work, scientific investigations, or long and +complicated calculations, I never think of taking any stimulant to aid +or refresh me, and I doubt whether it would be of any use to do so. + +JOSEPH BAXENDELL. +February 20, 1882. + + + + +DR. G. M. BEARD, +FELLOW OF THE NEW YORK ACADEMY OF MEDICINE. + + +In reply to your enquiries, I may say--first: I do not find that +alcohol is so good a stimulant to thought as coffee, tea, opium, or +tobacco. On myself alcohol has rather a benumbing and stupefying +effect, whatever may be the dose employed; whereas, tobacco and opium, +in moderate doses, tea, and especially coffee, as well as cocoa, have +an effect precisely the reverse. + +Secondly: there are many persons on whom alcohol in large or small +doses has a stimulating effect on thought: they can speak and think +better under its influence. The late Daniel Webster was accustomed to +stimulate himself for his great speeches by the use of alcohol. + +Thirdly: these stimulants and narcotics, according to the temperament +of the person on whom they are used, have effects precisely opposite, +either sedative or stimulating; while coffee makes some people sleepy, +the majority of persons are made wakeful by it. Some are made very +nervous by tobacco in the form of smoking, while on others it acts as +a sedative, and induces sleep. General Grant once told me 'that, if +disturbed during the night, or worried about anything so that he could +not sleep, he could induce sleep by getting up and smoking a short +time--a few whiffs, as I understood him, being sufficient. + +If I were to judge by my own experience alone--which it is not fair to +do--I should say that coffee is the best stimulant for mental work; +next to that tobacco and quinine; but as I grow older, I observe that +alcohol in reasonable doses is beginning to have a stimulating effect. + +GEORGE M. BEARD. +March 13, 1882. + + + + +PROFESSOR PAUL BERT. + + +My views on tobacco and alcohol, and their action on the health, may +be summed up in the following four propositions:-- + +1.--Whole populations have attained to a high degree of civilization +and prosperity without having known either tobacco or alcohol, +therefore, these substances are neither necessary nor even useful to +individuals as well as races. + +2.--Very considerable quantities of these drugs, taken at a single +dose, may cause death; smaller quantities stupefy, or kill more +slowly. They are, therefore, poisons against which we must be on our +guard. + +3.--On the other hand, there are innumerable persons who drink +alcoholic beverages, and smoke tobacco, without any detriment to their +reason or their health. There is, therefore, no reason to forbid the +use of these substances, while suitably regulating the quantity to be +taken. + +4.--The use of alcoholic liquors and of tobacco in feeble doses, +affords to many persons very great satisfaction, and is altogether +harmless and inoffensive. + +We ought, therefore, to attach no stigma to their consumption, after +having pointed out the danger of their abuse. In short, it is with +alcohol and tobacco as with all the pleasures of this life--a question +of degree. + +As for myself, I never smoke, because I am not fond of tobacco: I very +seldom drink alcoholic liquors, but I take wine to all my meals +because I like it. + +PAUL BERT. +March 1, 1882. + + + + +PROFESSOR JOHN STUART BLACKIE. + + +My idea is, that work done under the influence of any kind of +stimulants is unhealthy work, and tends to no good. I never use any +kind of stimulant for intellectual work--only a glass of wine during +dinner to sharpen the appetite. As to smoking generally, it is a vile +and odious practice; but I do not know that, unless carried to excess, +it is in any way unhealthy. Instead of stimulants, literary men should +seek for aid in a pleasant variety of occupation, in intervals of +perfect rest, in fresh air and exercise, and a cultivation of +systematic moderation in all emotions and passions. + +J. S. BLACKIE. +February 9, 1882. + + + + +M. LOUIS BLANC. + + +In answer to your letter, I beg to tell you that I do not know by +experience what may be the effects of tobacco and alcohol upon the +mind and health, not having been in the habit of taking tobacco and +drinking alcohol. + +LOUIS BLANC. +March 9, 1882. + + + + +MR. J. E. BOEHM, R. A. + + +It will give me great pleasure if I can in any way contribute to your +so very interesting researches, and I shall be glad to know whether +you have published anything on the subject you have questioned me on. +I find vigorous exercise the first and most important stimulant to +hard work. I get up in summer at six, in winter at seven, take an hour +and a half's hard ride, afterwards a warm bath, a cold douche, and +then breakfast. I work from ten to seven generally; but twice or +thrice a week I have an additional exercise--an hour's fencing before +dinner, which I take at 8 p.m. I take light claret or hock to my +dinner, but never touch any wine or spirits at any other times, and +eat meat only once in twenty-four hours. I find a small cup of coffee +after luncheon very exhilarating. I smoke when hard at work--chiefly +cigarettes. After a long sitting (as I do not smoke while working +_from nature_), a cigarette is a soother for which I get a +perfect craving. In the evening, or when I am in the country doing +nothing, I scarcely smoke at all, and do not feel the want of it +there; nor do I then take at evening dinner more than one or two +glasses of wine, and I have observed that the same quantity which +would make me feel giddy in the country when in full health and +vigour, would not have the slightest effect on me when taken after a +hard day's work. I also observed that I can work longer without +fatigue when I have had my ride, than when for any reason I have to +give it up. I have carried this mode of life on for nearly twenty +years, and am well and feel young, though forty-eight. I never see any +one from ten to three o'clock; after that I still work, but must often +suffer interruption. I found that temperament and constitution are +rarely, if ever, a legitimate excuse for departure from abstinence and +sober habits. I have the conviction that in order to have the eye and +the brain clear, you ought to make your skin act vigorously at least +once in twenty-four hours. + +J. E. BOEHM. +February 20, 1882. + + + + +DR. BREDENCAMP, ERLANGEN. + + +In reply to your letter, I am accustomed to smoke. If I do not smoke, +I cannot do my work properly; and it is quite impossible to do any +work in the morning without smoking. Strong drink I do not need at +all, but I drink two glasses of Bavarian beer, which contains very +little alcohol. + +E. BREDENCAMP. +April 18, 1882. + + + + +MR. FORD MADOX BROWN, R. A. + + +I have smoked for upwards of thirty years, and have given up smoking +for the last seven years. Almost all my life I have taken alcoholic +liquors in moderation, but have also been a total abstainer for a +short period. My experience is that neither course with either +ingredient has anything to do with mental work as capacity for it; +unless, indeed, we are to except the incapacity produced by excessive +drinking, of which, however, I have no personal experience. + +F. M. BROWN. +Feb. 28, 1882. + + + + +MR. ROBERT BUCHANAN. + + +I am myself no authority on the subject concerning which you write. I +drink myself, but not during the hours of work; and I smoke-pretty +habitually. My own experience and belief is, that both alcohol and +tobacco, like most blessings, can be turned into curses by habitual +self-indulgence. Physiologically speaking, I believe them both to be +invaluable to humankind. The cases of dire disease generated by total +abstinence from liquor are even more terrible than those caused by +excess. With regard to tobacco, I have a notion that it is only +dangerous where the vital organism, and particularly the nervous +system, is badly nourished. + +ROBERT BUCHANAN. +March 7, 1882. + + + + +DR. BUDDENSEIG, +DRESDEN. + + +I have no decided opinion whatever as to the question you ask. I can +only say that I am a very small smoker, taking one or two cigars +daily, and I drink Rhine wine, but not daily, as most scholars or +those working with their brains generally do. There can be, I should +think, no question that immoderate use of alcohol produces most +destructive results. + +E. BUDDENSEIG. +Feb. 20, 1882. + + + + +CAPTAIN FRED BURNABY. + + +In my humble opinion, every man must find out for himself whether +stimulants are a help to his intellectual efforts. It is impossible to +lay down a law. What would, perhaps, enable one man to write +brilliantly would make another man write nonsense. I myself, although +not an abstainer, should think it a great mistake to seek inspiration +in either tobacco or alcohol. + +F. BURNABY. +March 2, 1882. + + + + +LIEUT.-COL. W. F. BUTLER. + + +In reply to your communication, asking for a statement of my +experience as to the effects of tobacco and alcohol upon the mind and +health, I beg to inform you that as I have not been in the habit of +using the first-named article at any period of my life, I am unable to +speak of its effects, mental or otherwise. With regard to alcohol, I +have found that although the brain may receive a temporary accession +to its production of thought, through the use of wine, etc., such +increased action is always followed by a decided weakening of the +thinking power, and that on the whole a far greater amount of +_even_ mental work is to be obtained without the use of alcohol +than with it. + +W. F. BUTLER. +Feb. 18, 1882. + + + + +DR. LAUDER BURNTON, F. R. S. + + +I am unable to give you personal experience as to the use of tobacco, +inasmuch as I do not use it in any form. From observation of others it +appears to me that, when not used to excess, it is serviceable both as +a stimulant during work, and as a sedative after work is over. + +LAUDER BURNTON. +Feb. 9, 1882. + + + + +MAXIME DU CAMP. + + +I have never been able to make any experiences on the influence of +alcohol upon the mind. I never drink it, and have never been tipsy. I +smoke very much, but only the pipe and cigarette. I take two meals +every day--one at eleven, consisting of a mutton chop, vegetables, and +a cup of tea. I make a hearty dinner at seven, and drink a bottle of +Bordeaux wine. I never work in the evening; and go to bed at half-past +ten. I think the use of tobacco very useless and rather stupid. As to +alcohol, I consider it very hurtful for the liver, and highly +injurious to the mind. The life of mental workers should be well +regulated and temperate in all respects. Bodily exercises, such as +riding, walking and hunting, are very necessary for the relaxation of +the mind, and must be taken occasionally. In my opinion, all +intellectual productions are due to a special disposition of the +cerebro-spinal system, upon which tobacco and alcohol can have no +salutary action. I fear that my answer will be of little help to you; +for in these matters I esteem theory nothing. There are, as the +Germans say, _idiosyncrasies_. + +MAXIME DU CAMP. +Feb. 17, 1882. + + + + +DR. W. B. CARPENTER, C. B., LL. D., F. R. S. + + +In reply to your enquiry, I have to inform you that I have never felt +the need of alcoholic stimulants as a help in intellectual efforts; on +the contrary, I have found them decidedly injurious in that respect, +except when used with the strictest moderation. For about eleven years +of the hardest-working period of my life, that in which I produced my +large treatises on Physiology, edited the Medical Quarterly Review, +and did a great deal of other literary work, besides lecturing, I was +practically a total abstainer, though I never took any pledge. I +undoubtedly injured myself by over-work during that period, as I have +more than once done since under the pressure of official duty; but the +injury has shown itself in the failure of appetite and digestive +power. After many trials, I have come to the practical conclusion that +I get on best, while in London, by taking with my dinner a couple of +glasses of very light Claret, and simply as an aid in the digestion of +the food which is required to keep up my mental and bodily power. But +when "on holiday" in Scotland, or elsewhere, I do not find the need of +this. I have never smoked tobacco, or used it in any form. I need +scarcely say that I have never used any other "nervine stimulants." +You are at perfect liberty to make use of this communication. + +WM. B. CARPENTER. +Feb. 17, 1882. + + + + +MR. WILLIAM CHAMBERS, LL. D. + + +In reply to your note, I have only time to say that I never used +tobacco in any form all my life, and I can say the same thing +regarding my brother, Robert. + +WILLIAM CHAMBERS. +February 10, 1882. + + + + +MR. GEORGE W. CHILDS, +PHILADELPHIA. + + +I fear I shall be unable to add to your fund of information. Never +having used spirituous or vinous stimulants, or tobacco in any form, I +have no personal "experience" of the way they affect the mental +faculties of those who use them. + +G. W. CHILDS. +Sept. 30, 1882. + + + + +M. JULES CLARETIE, +PARIS. + + +I should have been glad to reply to your question from my personal +experience, but I do not smoke, and have never in all my life drunk as +much as a single glass of alcohol. This plainly shows that I require +no "fillip" or stimulant when at work. Tobacco and alcohol may cause +over-excitement of the brain, as does coffee, which I am very fond of; +but, in my opinion, that alone is thorough good work which is +performed without artificial stimulant, and in full possession of +one's health and faculties. The reason we have so many sickly +productions in our literature arises probably from the fact that our +writers, perhaps, add a little alcohol to their ink, and view life +through the fumes of nicotine. + +M. JULES CLARETIE. +Feb. 26, 1882. + + + + +MR. HYDE CLARKE, F. S. S. + + +As I am not an adherent of the teetotal abstinence movement, I beg +that everything I write may be accepted with this reservation. I have +never seen that any great thinker has found any help or benefit from +the use of stimulants-either alcohol or tobacco. My observations and +experiences are unfavourable to both classes of stimulants. In my own +case, I gave up smoking before my scientific work began. Alcoholic +drinks I used moderately, but I was a water drinker chiefly. Of late +years, from illness, I have given up alcoholic drinks; but were I in +full health, I should use them moderately. In the course of a public +life of about forty years, I have seen the ill-effects of drinking +upon many journalists and others; but it appears to me that smoking +produces still greater evil. A man knows when he is drunk, but he does +not know when he has smoked too much, until the effects of +accumulation have made themselves permanent. To smoking are to be +traced many affections of the eyes, and of the ears, besides other +ailments. I have heard much said in favour of smoking and drinking, +but never saw any favourable result. The communication of the evil +results of these stimulants to offspring appears to me to constitute a +further serious objection to them, I approve fully of your object, but +as I do not go to the length of total abstinence advocates, I am +desirous not to be misunderstood. Several years of my life were spent +in the East, and my experience there only confirms me the more. I have +known many drunkards among literary men, and the stimulants they took +never helped their work; and it was only because they were men of +exceptionally strong brain that their excesses did not incapacitate +them. There are many excesses of this kind that are equally +misunderstood by those who indulge in them, and by temperance writers. +There are, in fact, many men of enormous power, who can smoke and +drink all day long. They constitute no standard: so far as I have +seen, the consequences show themselves only in the offspring, though +in this case it must be taken into account, that the children are +sometimes born before a man's health has been seriously injured. A man +of exceptional strength misleads and encourages others to indulge. + +HYDE CLARKE. +October 14, 1882. + + + + +MR. WILKIE COLLINS. + + +When I am ill (I am suffering from gout at this very moment) tobacco +is the best friend that my irritable nerves possess. When I am well, +but exhausted for the time by a hard day's work, tobacco nerves and +composes me. There is my evidence in two words. When a man allows +himself to become a glutton in the matter of smoking tobacco, he +suffers for it; and if he becomes a glutton in the matter of eating +meat, he just as certainly suffers in another way. When I read learned +attacks on the practice of smoking, I feel indebted to the writer--he +adds largely to the relish of my cigar. + +WILKIE COLONS. +February 10, 1882. + + + + +MR. MONCURE D. CONWAY, M. A. + + +My experience of stimulants has been insufficient to enable me to +give any important opinion about them. As to tobacco, my strong hope +is that my own sons will never use it; but if they should develop +peculiar and excitable nerves, or become very emotional, or have much +trouble, it is so likely that they might take to some worse habit that +I would prefer they should smoke. + +M. D. CONWAY. +February 22, 1882. + + + + +REV. W. H. DALLINGER, F. R. S. + + +I am not a pledged abstainer: I have used both tobacco and alcohol in +various forms. Neither is at all necessary to my vigour of either body +or mind. My use of tobacco has been but slight. I have never Used +alcohol for years. I could never think deeply after the use of +tobacco; I have felt a quickening of thought at times after a slight +use of good wine; but I know, from physiological evidence, what +practice has certainly proved, that no permanent benefit to either +body or mind must be sought from its use. I have employed it with +great benefit at times--that is, where it was better to afford the +exhaustion following a mere stimulant, than to submit to an exhaustion +which the stimulant could for the moment counteract. This is the only +advantage, save to the palate, that I have known to be derived +personally from the use of alcohol. + +W. H. DALLINGER. +February 11, 1882. + + + + +PROFESSOR DARWIN. + + +I drink a glass of wine daily, and believe I should be better without +any, though all doctors urge me to drink wine, as I suffer much from +giddiness. I have taken snuff all my life, and regret that I ever +acquired the habit, which I have often tried to leave off, and have +succeeded for a time. I feel sure that it is a great stimulus and aid +in my work. I also daily smoke two little paper cigarettes of Turkish +tobacco. This is not a stimulus, but rests me after I have been +compelled to talk, with tired memory, more than anything else. I am 73 +years old. + +CH. DARWIN. +February 9, 1882. + + + + +W. BOYD DAWKINS, M. A., F. R. S., F. G. S. +PROFESSOR OF GEOLOGY, OWENS COLLEGE, MANCHESTER. + + +I have received your note asking about the effect of alcohol on my +health and work. I cannot say that they influence either; I find, +however, that I cannot drink beer when I am using my brain, and, +therefore, do not take it when I have anything of importance to think +about. I look upon tobacco and alcohol as merely luxuries, and there +are no luxuries more dangerous if you take too much of them. I find +quinine the best stimulant to thought. + +W. BOYD DAWKINS. +February 16, 1882. + + + + +The Rev. ALEX. J. D. D'ORSEY, B. D., +LECTURER ON PUBLIC READING AND SPEAKING AT KING'S COLLEGE, LONDON. + + +For my own part, I am decidedly averse to the use of tobacco and +stimulants. I am myself a total abstainer (not pledged), and I have +never smoked in my life. I always do my utmost to dissuade young and +old alike to abstain from even the moderate use of tobacco and +stimulants, as in the course of a long and laborious life, speaking +much and preaching without notes, I have always felt able to grapple +with my subject, with pleasure to myself and with profit, I trust, to +my hearers. + +A. J. D. D'ORSEY. +March 17, 1882. + + + + +MR. EDMUND O'DONOVAN, +SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT OF THE "DAILY NEWS." + + +As far as my experience goes, the use of stimulants enables one at +moments of severe bodily exhaustion to make mental efforts of which, +but for them, he would be absolutely incapable. For instance, after a +long day's ride in the burning sun across the dry stony wastes of +Northern Persia, I have arrived in some wretched, mud-built town, and +laid down upon my carpet in the corner of some miserable hovel, +utterly worn out by bodily fatigue, mental anxiety, and the worry +inseparable from constant association with Eastern servants. It would +be necessary to write a long letter to the newspapers before retiring +to rest. A judicious use of stimulants has, under such circumstances, +not only given me sufficient energy to unpack my writing materials, +lie on my face, and propped on both elbows, write for hours by the +light of a smoky lamp; but also produced the flow of ideas that +previously refused to come out of their mental hiding places, or which +presented themselves in a flat and uninteresting form. I consider, +then, the use of alcoholic and other stimulation to be conducive to +literary labours under circumstances of physical and mental +exhaustion; and very often the latter is the normal condition of +writers, especially those employed on the press. Perhaps, too, in +examining into the nature of some metaphysical and psychological +questions the use of alcohol, or some similar stimulant, aids the +appreciation of _nuances_ of thought which might otherwise escape +the cooler and less excited brain. On the other hand, while travelling +in the East during the past few years, and when, as a rule, +circumstances precluded the possibility of obtaining stimulants, I +found that a robust state of health consequent on an out-door life, +made the consumption of alcohol in any shape quite unnecessary. In +brief, then, my opinion is, that at a given moment of mental +depression or exhaustion, the use of stimulants will restore the mind +to a condition of activity and power fully equalling, and in some +particular ways, surpassing its normal state. Subsequently to the +dying out of the stimulation the brain is left in a still more +collapsed situation than before, in other words, must pay the penalty, +in the form of an adverse reaction, of having overdrawn its powers, +for having, as it were, anticipated its work. + +E. O'DONOVAN. Feb. 17, 1882. + + + + +PROFESSOR DOWDEN, LL. D. + + +I distinguish direct and immediate effect of alcohol on the brain from +its indirect effect through the general health of the body. I can only +speak for myself. I have no doubt that the direct effect of alcohol on +me is intellectually injurious. This, however, is true in a certain +degree, of everything I eat and drink (except tea). After the smallest +meal I am for a while less active mentally. A single glass even of +claret I believe injures my power of thinking; but accepting the +necessity of regular meals, I do not find that a sparing allowance of +light wine adds to the subsequent dulness of mind, and I am disposed +to think it is of some slight use physically. From one to two and a +half _small_ wine glasses of claret or burgundy is the limit of +what I can take--and that only at dinner--without conscious harm. One +glass of sherry or port I find every way injurious. Whisky and brandy +are to me simply poisons, destroying my power of enjoyment and of +thought. Ale I can only drink when very much in the open air. As to +tobacco, I have never smoked much, but I can either not smoke, as at +present, or go to the limit of two small cigarettes in twenty-four +hours. Any good effects of tobacco become with me uncertain in +proportion to the frequency of smoking. The good effects are those +commonly ascribed to it: it seems to soothe away small worries, and to +restore little irritating incidents to their true proportions. On a +few occasions I have thought it gave me a mental fillip, and enabled +me to start with work I had been pausing over; and it nearly always +has the power to produce a pleasant, and perhaps wholesome, +retardation of thought--a half unthinking reverie, if one adapts +surrounding circumstances to encourage this mood. The only sure brain +stimulants with me are plenty of fresh air and tea; but each of these +in large quantity produces a kind of intoxication: the intoxication of +a great amount of air causing wakefulness, with a delightful confusion +of spirits, without the capacity of steady thought; tea intoxication +unsettles and enfeebles my will; but then a great dose of tea often +does get good work out of me (though I may pay for it afterwards), +while alcohol renders all mental work impossible. I have been +accustomed to make the effects of tea and wine a mode of separating +two types of constitution. I have an artist friend whose brain is +livelier after a bottle of Carlowitz, which would stifle my mind, and +to him my strong cup of tea would be poison. We are both, I think, of +nervous organization, but how differentiated I cannot tell. My pulse +goes always rather too quickly; a little emotional disturbance sets it +going at an absurdly rapid rate for hours, and extreme physical +fatigue follows. My conviction is that no one rule applies to all men, +but for men like me alcohol is certainly not necessary, and at best of +little use. I have a kindlier feeling towards tobacco, though I am +only occasionally a smoker. + +P.S.--Since writing the above, I have asked two friends (each an +intellectual worker of extraordinary energy) how alcohol affects them. +Both agreed that a large dose of alcohol stimulated them +_intellectually_, but that the subsequent _physical_ results +were injurious. + +E. DOWDEN. +March 3, 1882. + + + + +PROFESOR EDISON. + + +I think chewing tobacco acts as a good stimulant upon anyone engaged +in laborious brain work. Smoking, although pleasant, is too violent in +its action; and the same remark applies to alcoholic liquors. I am +inclined to think that it is better for intellectual workers to +perform their labours at night, as after a very long experience of +night work, I find my brain is in better condition at that time, +especially for experimental work, and when so engaged I almost +invariably chew tobacco as a stimulant. + +THOS. A. EDISON, +April 4, 1882. + + + + +MR. ALEX. J. ELLIS, F. R. S., F. S. A., +PRESIDENT OF THE PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY. + + +I am 67 3/4. I never took tobacco in any shape or form. For +twenty-five years I have taken no sort of stimulant, not even tea or +coffee. But for eight years in and amongst these twenty-five, but not +part of them, I took a little wine. This is eight years ago. I did not +find wine increased my power of work. I have led a working literary +life, always occupied, except when obliged to rest from over work. The +longest of these rests was three years, from 1849, while I was still +drinking wine. It is possible that wine may whip one up a bit for a +moment, but I don't believe in it as a necessity. I am not a +teetotaler or temperance man in any way, and my rejection of all +stimulants (my strongest drink being milk and much water) is a mere +matter of taste. + +A. J. ELLIS. +February 22, 1882. + + + + +PROFESSOR EVERETT. + + +In reply to your letter, I have to say that I think all stimulants, +whether in the form of alcoholic drinks, tea or coffee, or tobacco, +should be very moderately used. For my own part, I have never smoked +or snuffed, and my daily allowance of alcoholic drinks is a so-called +pint bottle of beer or two glasses of wine. I have more frequently +suffered from nervous excitability due to tea or coffee, than from any +other kind of stimulant. I can compose best when my brain is coolest +and my digestion easiest. I do not believe in artificial stimulus to +literary effort. + +J. D. EVERETT. +February 22, 1882. + + + + +PROFESSOR R. M. FAIRBAIRN, +CHAIRMAN OF THE CONGREGATIONAL UNION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. + + +I cannot say anything as to the effects of tobacco and alcohol upon +the health. I never use either, and so can only say that in my case +work has been done without their help. In the absence of data for +comparison as to the effects of indulgence and abstinence, it would be +foolish in me to express any comparative judgment; but it is only fair +to say that so far as I am capable of forming any opinion on the +matter, the abstinence has been altogether beneficial. + +R. M. FAIRBAIRN. +February 16, 1882. + + + + +MR. R. E. FRANCILLON. + + +It so happens that your question belongs to a class of topics in which +I have taken much theoretical interest. For my general views, I cannot +do better than refer you to a paper of mine in the Gentleman's +Magazine of March, 1875, called "The Physiology of Authorship;" but I +fully agree with you that the settlement of the question can only +depend upon the collection of individual experience. I have +consciously studied my own, and can state it shortly and plainly. I am +a very hard, very regular, and not seldom an excessive worker; and I +find that my consumption of tobacco, and my production of work are in +'almost exact pro-portion, I cannot pretend to guess whether the work +demands the tobacco or whether the tobacco stimulates the work; but in +my case they are inextricably and, I believe, necessarily combined. +When I take a holiday, especially if I spend it in the open air, I +scarcely smoke at all; indeed, I find that bodily exercise requires no +stimulant of any kind whatever. If I read, I smoke little; but if I +produce, tobacco takes the form of a necessity, I believe--for I am +indolent by _nature_, and tobacco seems to me to be the best +machine for making work go with the grain that I can find. [Footnote: +The wisdom of occasionally using these various stimulants for +intellectual purposes is proved by a single consideration. Each of us +has a little cleverness and a great deal of sluggish stupidity. There +are certain occasions when we absolutely need the little cleverness +that we possess. The orator needs it when he speaks, the poet when he +Versifies, but neither cares how stupid he may become when the oration +is delivered and the lyric set down on paper. The stimulant serves to +bring out the talent when it is wanted, like the wind in the pipes of +an organ. "What will it matter if I am even a little duller +afterwards?" says the genius; "I can afford to be dull when I have +done." But the truth still remains that there are stimulants and +stimulants. Not the nectar of the gods themselves were worth the dash +of a wave upon the beach, and the pure cool air of the morning.-- +Philip G. Hamerton, in _Intellectual Life_, p. 21.] I have a very +strong suspicion that if I did not smoke (which I find harmless) I +should have to conquer really dangerous temptations. As things are, +though I am a very moderate wine-drinker (spirits I never touch, and +abhor), alcohol, practically speaking, bears no appreciable part in my +life's economy. I believe that to some people tobacco is downright +poison; to some, life and health; to the vast majority, including +myself, neither one thing nor the other, but simply a comfort or an +instrument, or a mere nothing, according to idiosyncrasy. + +My general theory is, that _bodily_ labour and exercise need no +stimulant at all, or at most very little; but that intellectual, and +especially creative, work, when it draws upon the mind beyond a +quickly reached point, requires being a non-natural condition +non-natural means to keep it going. I cannot call to mind a single +case, except that of Goethe, where great mental labour has been +carried on without external support of some sort; which seems to imply +an instinctive knowledge of how to get more out of the brain machine +than is possible under normal conditions. Of course the means must +differ more or less in each individual case; and sometimes the owner +of a creative brain must decide whether he will let it lie fallow for +health's sake, or whether for work's sake he will let life and health +go. I always insist very strongly upon brain work-beyond an uncertain +point-being _non-natural_, and, therefore, requiring non-natural +conditions for its exercise. I can quite believe the feat of the +Hungarian officer [Footnote: The surprising endurance of the Hungarian +officer, who lately swam a lake in Hungary, a distance of eleven +miles, is ascribed to his abstinence from alcohol and tobacco.-- +_Thrift_, for February, 1882.] would be impossible to a man who +smoked or drank. But I cannot at all believe in that officer's powers +of writing, instead of swimming, with a mind at full stretch, for the +half of eleven hours. As to economy, tobacco costs me a good deal; but +I look upon it as the investment of so much capital, bearing better +interest than any other investment could bear. + +R. E. FRANCILLON. +April 4, 1882. + + + + +MR. EDWARD A. FREEMAN, D. C. L., LL. D. + + +I can tell you nothing of the effects of smoking tobacco, having had +no experience. I tried once or twice when young, but, finding it +nasty, I did not try again. _Why_ people smoke, I have no notion. +If I am tired of work, a short sleep sets me up again. I really have +nothing to say about alcohol--I have never thought about it. I drink +wine like other people, and I find brandy an excellent medicine on +occasion. I used to drink beer, but some of the doctors say it is not +good for me, and some have recommended whisky instead; but I really +have no views on the subject. I have drunk wine and beer, as I have +eaten beef and mutton, without any theories one way or another. + +E.A. FREEMAN. +October 29, 1882. + + + + +MR. F. J. FURNIVALL, M. A. + + +Though I have no claim to be considered as one of the great thinkers +and popular authors, I am a small thinker and a decidedly unpopular +author, who has nevertheless done some work, I answer, that I have +been a teetotaler since the summer of 1841, when I was 16, and I have +never smoked except as a lark at school. I was a Vegetarian for about +25 years. I believe alcohol to be highly detrimental to head work. +Tobacco has, I think, done good in only one case that has come under +my notice during 40 years; it quieted an excitable man. My father, who +was a medical man of wide practice, was very strong against much use +of tobacco. He knew two cases of speedy death from the oil in the bowl +of a tobacco-pipe being applied to aching teeth. He had several cases +of much impaired digestion from smoking. + +F. J FURNIVALL. +March 8, 1882. + + + + +MR. SAMUEL R. GARDINER, HON. LL. D. +PROFESSOR OF MODERN HISTORY IN KING'S COLLEGE. + + +In reply to your letter, I beg to say that I never smoked in my life, +and don't intend to begin. I take beer at luncheon and dinner, and +occasionally a glass or two of wine, but very often I am four or five +days without doing that. + +SAMUEL R. GARDINER. +March 9, 1882. + + + +RT. HON. W. E. GLADSTONE, M. P. + + +In answer to your questions, I beg to say that Mr. Gladstone drinks +one glass or two of claret at luncheon, the same at dinner, with the +addition of a glass of light port. The use of wine to this extent is +especially necessary to him at the time of greatest intellectual +exertion. Smoking he detests, and he has always abstained from the use +of very strong and fiery stimulants. + +HERBERT J. GLADSTONE. +November 29, 1882. + + + + +MDLLE. H. GREVILLE. + + +Being a lady, though my _nom de plume_ be a man's, I have little +experience of either alcohol or tobacco. I must fairly say that though +claret agrees with my constitution when properly mixed with water, +wine without water, and every kind of liqueurs, makes me very ill, +especially when taken between my meals, which are only two in number-- +breakfast at twelve, and dinner at seven. I never use any stimulant. +My sleep being scanty, I want sedatives rather than stimulants. I must +add, nevertheless, that once or twice in a year, when I felt very +tired, and had some work to conclude, especially at night, I happened +to smoke one cigarette or Russian papyrus, which revived me promptly, +and enabled me to finish my work. If you may be interested in my +fashion of working, I may inform you that I work very fast, two hours +at once, and then take a rest, or dinner. After resting two hours, I +can write two hours again. I write without scratching, or blotting, +about 100 lines of any French newspaper feuilleton, not the +_Temps_, which is larger, but the _Figuro_, or any similar +paper, in half-an-hour's time. I don't think that any-body could write +more quickly; I seldom make any corrections, and never copy my work, +which is sent to the printer as I write it. I use no stimulants of any +kind, but sometimes eat an orange or two. After working towards +midnight, I sometimes feel hungry, but I never eat for fear of +spoiling my night's rest. I lived many years in Russia, and my +experience is, that people who smoke too much suffer from their +throat. Emile Augrer has been very ill with his stomach, from smoking +too many strong cigars. He ceased, and has been completely healed. + +H. GREVILLE. +April 28, 1882. + + + + +COUNT GUBERNATIS. + + +In reply to your favour of the 28th ult., I have the honour to inform +you that I do not smoke, because nicotine acts upon my system as a +most powerful poison. At the age of ten I had a Havana cigar given me +to smoke; after smoking it I fainted and did not come to myself till +after a _deep sleep, which lasted twenty-four hours._ When I was +twenty, the third part of a cigar was given me to smoke as a remedy +for the toothache. I could not finish it. A cold perspiration attended +with vomiting and fainting ensued. I therefore judge from the effects +of tobacco upon myself that it cannot be such a benefactor of mankind +as people have tried to make it out. I am convinced that in any case, +smoking lulls the mind to sleep, and when carried to excess tends to +produce stupefaction or idiotcy. + +Perhaps you are aware that in Little Russia, the people call tobacco +the _Devil's herb_; and it is related that the devil planted it +under the form of an idolater. For my part I am quite prepared to +adopt the opinion of the Russian people. Before the time of Peter the +Great, smoking was strictly prohibited in Russia. + +The Poet Prati sang one day: + + Fuma, passagia e medita + E diverrai poeta. + +(Smoke, ramble alone and think, and thou will soon become a poet.) + +That is what he himself does, but my belief is that owing to the abuse +of cigars, he so frequently raves (dotes) and his poetry is often +cloudy. + +As for alcohol, I take it to be proved beyond all doubt, that when +taken in very small quantities it may, in certain cases, do good, but +that taken in large quantities it kills. After having burnt the +stomach, it deprives it of its power of digestion. I have seen a great +many persons begin to use alcoholic beverages in the hope of acquiring +tone, and afterwards get so accustomed to their use, that the best +Chianti wine passed into their stomach like water. In this case, as in +so many other cases, it is a question of measure. Alcohol has a like +injurious effect upon the brain as upon the stomach. + +I am by no means an authority on the question which you have been good +enough to address to me, and can therefore only give you briefly a +statement of my own personal experience. Speaking of stimulants, I +would mention, for instance, the strange effect produced upon my +rather sensitive organism by a single cup of coffee. If I take a cup +of coffee at six o'clock in the evening I cannot get to sleep before +six in the morning. If I take it at noon I can get to sleep at +midnight I know that many people take coffee to keep awake when +working through the night. My own opinion is that you cannot work any +better with these stimulants. There is a sort of irritation produced +by drinking coffee which I do not consider helpful to serious and +sustained work. It is possible, however, that works of genius may be +produced sometimes in a state of nervous excitement, I suppose when +the shattered nerves begin to relax. Manzoni wrote his master pieces +when in a state of painful nervous distraction, but alcohol had +nothing to do with it; perhaps he had recourse to other stimulants. + +(1) When we read that literary producers of any power have gone on +working up to the last, even in the near approach of death, we usually +find the work done has been of a not unwelcome kind, and often that it +has formed part of a long-cherished design. But when the disease of +which the sufferer is dying is consumption, or some disease which +between paroxysms of pain leaves spaces of ease and rest, it is +nothing wonderful that work should be done. Some of the best of +Paley's works were produced under such conditions, and some of the +best of Shelley's. Nor, indeed, is there anything in mere pain which +necessarily prevents literary work. The late Mr. T. T. Lynch produced +some of his most beautiful writings amid spasms of _angina +pectoris_. This required high moral courage in the writer.... It is +a curious, though well-known fact, however, that times of illness, +when the eyes swim and the hand shakes, are oftentimes rich in +suggestion. If the mind is naturally fertile--if there is stuff in +it--the hours of illness are by no means wasted. It is then that the +"_dreaming_ power" which counts for so much in literary work +often asserts itself most usefully.--_The Contemporary Review_, +vol. 29, p. 946. + +(2) When the poet Wordsworth was engaged in composing the "White Doe +of Rylstone," he received a wound in his foot, and he observed that +the continuation of his literary labours increased the irritation of +the wound; whereas by suspending his work he could diminish it, and +absolute mental rest produced perfect cure. In connection with this +incident he remarked that poetic excitement, accompanied by protracted +labour in composition, always brought on more or less of bodily +derangement He preserved himself from permanently injurious +consequences by his excellent habit of life.--Hamerton. _The +Intellectual Life_. + +I know that certain authors think they can write better when taking +artificial stimulants. I do not, however, believe that an artificial +irritation of the nerves can have any good effect upon our faculty of +apprehension. I am even inclined to think that when we write best, +_it is not owing_ to nervous _excitement_, but rather because our nerves, +after a period of extreme irritation, _leave us a few moments respite_, +and it is during these moments the divine spark shines brightly. When +creative genius has accomplished its task, the nerves once more relapse +into their former irritability and cause us to suffer; but at the time of +creation there is a truce of suffering. + +I never use any stimulant to help me in my labours; yet when I have +been writing works of fiction, for instance my Indian and Roman Plays, +I have nearly always been subject to great nervous agitation. When I +suffered most from spasms, I had short intervals of freedom from pain, +during which I could write, and those around me asked in astonishment +how I could, in the midst of such suffering, write scenes that were +cheerful, glowing and impassioned. + +I have occasionally in my time enjoyed these luminous intervals. I do +not know whether those who use alcohol as a stimulant have experienced +the same. No doubt they have succeeded in exciting their nervous +sensibilities; but I assert that the real work of creative genius is +accomplished in the intervals of this purturbation of the nerves which +by some is deemed so essential to intellectual labour. When the nerves +are excited to the highest pitch, they occasionally suffer, the +transitory cessation from which is the divine moment of human +creation. It seems to me, however, that this ought to be left to +nature, and that every attempt to produce artificial excitement, for +the purpose of producing creations of a higher class, is futile and +beset with danger. + +ANGELO DE GUBERNATIS. +March 4, 1882. + + + + +M. L. P. GUENIN, +REVISING STENOGRAPHER TO THE FRENCH SENATE. + + +I thank you for having asked my opinion upon the effects of tobacco +and alcohol on the mind and the health of men who give themselves up +to intellectual work; and hasten to comply with your request. I am not +a very resolute adversary of tobacco, because I must admit that I +smoke, and at home use wine also: but if their use appears useful or +agreeable, I ought to add that whenever I have to undertake any long +arduous work, and above all, the reproduction of stenographic law or +parliamentary reports, of which the copy is required without delay, I +then make use of nothing but pure water. I limit myself as to +stimulant to the use of coffee, which enables me to pass whole days +and nights without feeling any want of sleep and, so to say, without +fatigue, notwithstanding the labour of the stenographic translations. +As you see, I consider that tobacco and alcohol do not act as +stimulants, but rather as narcotics. With me they induce after the +first moment of excitement a sort of calm and somnolence altogether +incompatible with severe work; and I prefer coffee, always on the +condition that as soon as the effort to be accomplished is finished +the use of it must cease. I will not invoke the precedents of the +celebrated men who have been led to make great use of coffee without +impairing their health. It is after many years' experience that I have +acted as I have indicated. + +L. P. GUENIN. +March 11, 1582. + + + + +DR. WILLIAM GUY. + + +In answer to your enquiry, I may state the result of my personal +experience and observation thus :-1. Alcoholic liquors, when taken in +such quantity as to excite the circulation, are unfavourable to all +inquiries requiring care and accuracy, but not unfavourable to efforts +of the imagination. 2. Tobacco taken in small quantities is not +unwholesome in its action on mind or body. When taken in excess it is +not easy to define or describe its action, the chief fact relating to +it being that it increases the number of the pulse, but lessens the +force of the heart. 3. My personal experience of such quantities of +wine as two or more glasses of port a day at my age (72) is that it +produces no perceptible or measurable effect when taken for, say, +three weeks or a month at a time, when compared with the like period +of total abstinence. 4. It may be said in favour of temperance or even +of extreme abstinence, that some of those men who have done most work +in their day--John Howard, Wesley, and Cobbett, for example--have been +either very moderate, or decidedly abstemious. But on the other hand, +such men as Samuel Johnson, who was a free liver and glutton, and +Thackeray, who drank to excess, have also got through a great amount +of work. + +WILLIAM A. GUY. +Feb. 25, 1882. + + + + +PROFESSOR ERNST HAECKEL, +JENA. + + +I find strong coffee very useful in mental work. Of alcohol, I take +very little, because I find it of no value as a stimulant. I have +never smoked. + +E. HAECKEL. +November 4, 1882. + + + + +MR. PHILIP GILBERT HAMERTON. + + +I am quite willing to answer your question about tobacco. I used to +smoke in moderation, but six years ago, some young friends were +staying at my house, and they led me into smoking more in the evenings +than I was accustomed to. This brought on disturbed nights and dull +mornings; so I gave up smoking altogether--as an experiment--for six +months. At the end of that time, I found my general health so much +improved, that I determined to make abstinence a permanent rule, and +have stuck to my determination ever since, with decided benefit. I +shall certainly never resume smoking. I never use any stimulants +whatever when writing, and believe the use of them to be most +pernicious; indeed, I have seen terrible results from them. When a +writer feels dull, the best stimulant is fresh air. Victor Hugo makes +a good fire before writing, and then opens the window. I have often +found temporary dulness removed by taking a turn out of doors, or +simply by adopting Victor Hugo's plan. I am not a teetotaler, though +at various times I have abstained altogether from alcoholic stimulants +for considerable periods, feeling better without them. I drink ale to +lunch, and wine (Burgundy) to dinner; but never use either between +meals, when at home and at work. At one time I did myself harm by +drinking tea, but have quite given up both tea and coffee. My +breakfast in the morning is a basin of soup, invariably, and nothing +else. This is very unusual in England, but not uncommon in France. I +find it excellent, as it supports me well through the morning, without +any excitement. My notion of the perfect physical condition for +intellectual work is that in which the body is well supported without +any kind of stimulus to the nervous system. Thanks to the observance +of a few simple rules, I enjoy very regular health, with great +equality and regularity of working power, so that I get through a +great deal without feeling it to be any burden upon me, which is the +right state. I never do any brain work after dinner; I dine at seven, +and read after, but only in languages that I can read without any +trouble, and about subjects that I can read without any trouble, and +about subjects that are familiar to me. + +P.G. HAMERTON. +February 13, 1882. + + + + +MR. THOMAS HARDY. + + +I fear that the information I can give on the effect of tobacco will +be less than little: for I have never smoked a pipeful in my life, nor +a cigar. My impression is that its use would be very injurious in my +case; and so far as I have observed, it is far from-beneficial to any +literary man. There are, unquestionably, writers who smoke with +impunity, but this seems to be owing to the counterbalancing effect of +some accident in their lives or constitutions, on which few others +could calculate. I have never found alcohol helpful to novel-writing +in any degree. My experience goes to prove that the effect of wine, +taken as a preliminary to imaginative work, is to blind the writer to +the quality of what he produces rather than to raise its quality. When +walking much out of doors, and particularly when on Continental +rambles, I occasionally drink a glass or two of claret or mild ale. +The German beers seem really beneficial at these times of exertion, +which (as wine seems otherwise) may be owing to some alimentary +qualities they possess, apart from their stimulating property. With +these rare exceptions, I have taken no alcoholic liquor for the last +two years. + +T. HARDY. +Dec. 5, 1882. + + + + +MR. FREDERIC HARRISON. + + +Frederick Harrison never has touched tobacco in any form, though much +in the society of habitual smokers, but finds many hours in a close +smoking room rather depressing. Has always taken a moderate amount of +alcohol (pint of claret) _once_ in the day, and finds himself +rather stronger with than without it. Age fifty, health perfect; +accustomed to much open-air exercise, long sleep, and little food. +Reads and writes from eight to ten hours per diem, and never remembers +to have been a day unfit for work. + +March, 1882. + + + + +MR. G. A. HENTY. + + +In answer to your question, certainly in my own case I should find +stimulants destructive to good work. I get through an immense deal of +literary work in the course of the day. I rise at eight, and seldom +put out my light until three in the morning. With lunch and dinner I +drink claret and water, and never touch stimulants of any kind except +at meals. On the other hand, I smoke from the time I have finished +breakfast until I go to bed, and should find it very difficult to +write unless smoking. I have a great circle of literary friends, and +scarce but one smokes while he works. Some take stimulants--such as +brandy and soda water-while at work; some do not, but certainly +nineteen out of twenty smoke. I believe that smoking, if not begun +until after the age of twenty-one, to be in the vast majority of cases +advantageous alike to health, temper, and intellect; for I do not +think that it is in any way deleterious to the health, while it +certainly aids in keeping away infectious diseases, malaria, fever, +&c. + +While I consider a moderate use of wine and beer advantageous-except, +of course, where beer, as is often the case, affects the liver, I +regard the use of spirits as wholly deleterious, except when medically +required, and should like to see the tax upon spirits raised tenfold. +A glass of spirits and water may do no harm, but there is such a +tendency upon the part of those who use them to increase the dose, and +the end is, in that case, destruction to mind and body. + +G. A. HENTY. +February 22, 1882. + + + + +MR. OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES + + +Prefers an entirely undisturbed and unclouded brain for mental work, +unstimulated by anything stronger than tea or coffee, unaffected by +tobacco or other drags. His faculties are best under his control in +the forenoon, between breakfast and lunch. The only intellectual use +he could find in stimulants is the quickened mental action they induce +when taken in company. He thinks ideas may reach the brain when +slightly stimulated, which remain after the stimulus has ceased to +disturb its rhythms. He does not habitually use any drink stronger +than water. He has no peremptory rule, having no temptation to +indulgence, but approaching near to abstinence as he grows older. He +does not believe that any stimulus is of advantage to a healthy +student, unless now and then socially, in the intervals of mental +labour. + + + + +MR. GEORGE JACOB HOLYOAKE. + + +I never took enough of stimulants to tell whether it is good or ill +for "thinking and working." Tobacco is only good when you have a habit +of working too much, as it makes you lazy-minded. + +G. J. HOLYOAKE. +April 3, 1882. + + + + +SIR J. D. HOOKER, F. R. S. + + +I have had no experience on the subject of the use of tobacco and +alcohol that is of any value, or you should be welcome to it. + +Jos. D. HOOKER. +Feb. 13, 1882. + + + + +MR. W. D. HOWELLS. + + +If you will allow me to count myself out of the list of "great +thinkers "and _very_ "popular authors," I will gladly contribute +my experience in the points you publish. I never use tobacco, except +in a very rare, self-defensive cigarette, where a great many other +people are smoking; and I commonly drink water at dinner. When I take +wine, I think it weakens my work, and my working force the next +morning. + +W. D. HOWELLS. +March 2, 1882. + + + + +DR. J. P. JOULE. + + +I am afraid that my experience can be of little use to you, because I +have lived a very uniform life; and am therefore unable to compare the +consequences from following various _regimes_.. I use alcoholic +beverages moderately. I do not think they ever assisted or retarded my +mental work. As for tobacco, it is the object of my aversion, as it +must be to all non-smokers to whom the habits of the consumers of the +weed must always appear more or less as an impertinence. Besides, it +is difficult to imagine how the use of narcotics can be indulged in +with impunity to the health. + +J. P. JOULE. +February 11, 1882. + + + + +THE REV. HENRY LANSDELL. + + +In reply to your note, I beg to say--1st, that I have never been a +smoker. 2nd, that I became a total abstainer from alcoholic liquors +before I had attained the age of twenty. 3rd, that I have never kept +my bed, I am thankful to say, for a day, in my life. 4th, that up to +the age of twenty-four I rose at seven; and up to the age of +twenty-seven, at six; since twenty-seven, at five a.m. 5th, that it is +a common occurrence for me to have been (for some years past) at +mental employment from six a.m., to seven p.m. 6th, that I do not find +the least necessity for stimulants in the form either of tobacco or of +alcohol. + +HENRY LANSDELL. +March 13, 1882. + + + + +REV. STANLEY LEATHES, D. D. + + +I am not an habitual smoker, and therefore cannot speak about its +effects; I find it an irritant rather than a sedative. But I am quite +sensible of the virtue of an occasional glass of good wine, and am +certain I can work better with than without it. + +STANLEY LEATHES. +April 15, 1882. + + + + +W. E. H. LECKY. + + +I am not a smoker, and am therefore unable to give you any evidence +on the subject. + +W. E. H. LECKY. +February 7, 1882. + + + + +DR. F. R. LEES. + + +I have travelled in various parts of the world, from Greece to the +Pacific, and from the Coasts of Labrador to the Southern States of +North America, perhaps as much as any man living, and have never, in +heat or cold, felt any inconvenience from my forty-eight years of +abstinence. I have lectured for many nights consecutively on various +topics during the intervals of that time, and have written thousands +of articles on philosophy, temperance, physiology, politics and +criticisms in papers and magazines, and published pamphlets and +volumes equal to 25 octavos of small print; but have never required +anything stronger than tea or coffee as a stimulant. The Alliance +_Prize Essay_ (100 guineas) of 320 pages was composed and written +in 21 days. I never smoke, snuff, or chew. I have known _many_ +literary men ruined by smoking, and in all cases the continued use of +tobacco is most injurious to the mind, as well as to the body. It +_slays_ the nervous recuperative energy. + +F. R. LEES. +November 17, 1882. + + + + +MR. LEONE LEVI, F. S. A., +BARRISTER-AT-LAW, Professor of the Principles and Practice of Commerce +and Commercial Law, King's College, London. + + +I have no hesitation in saying that I have never found the need of +either tobacco or alcohol, or any other stimulants, for my +intellectual efforts. I have never used tobacco in any form, and +though occasionally, when my physical forces are much exhausted, I +have derived benefit from a single glass of wine or ale, as a rule, +and in my ordinary diet, I use nothing whatever but fresh water. This +is my personal experience, and though I have worked very hard-often +sixteen hours a day of continuous labour--I have always enjoyed, +thanks to Providence, the best of health. + +LEONE LEVI. + + + + +SIR JOHN LUBBOCK, BART. M. P. + + +I beg to say that in my opinion the use of tobacco is, in the great +majority of cases, prejudicial. As to alcohol, I would rather not +express any opinion. + +JOHN LUBBOCK. +February 17, 1882. + + + + +PROFESSOR MAGNUS. + + +In reply to your enquiry respecting the use of tobacco and alcohol, I +shall be glad to give you all the information I possess on this +subject; though, of course, I am not in a position to judge whether my +few remarks will be of any service to you. + +In the first place, as regards the influence of tobacco and alcohol +upon the health in general, it is clearly ascertained that under +certain circumstances, it may become highly injurious. + +Apart from the disturbance produced in the whole nervous system, there +are serious diseases affecting certain organs of the body, which arise +solely from the abuse of both these stimulants. We note a serious +affection of the visual organs, which we plainly designate by the name +of: "Emblyopia ex abusu nicotiano et alcoholico." The symptoms of this +complaint consist chiefly in a gradual and steady decline of the power +of sight, coupled with partial colour blindness. I cannot here enter +into details as to the manner in which the range of sight is affected +as regards each of the different colours, and can only refer to the +characteristic weakening of the power to distinguish red from other +hues. + +It will not be necessary, I presume, to extend my remarks to the evil +effects of tobacco and alcohol upon the human body, as you are +sufficiently acquainted with them, especially as far as alcohol is +concerned. + +Now as to the relation in which both stand to mental work. If I may be +allowed to state first of all the result of observations in my own +case, I must tell you that I have not found these drugs to be in any +degree helpful in the performance of mental labour. I find it +absolutely impossible to put any sensible thoughts on paper when I am +smoking. In former years I frequently tried to smoke a pipe or a cigar +over my work, but had always to give it up; I only got into proper +working condition after putting tobacco aside. Indeed, of late years I +have felt a growing antipathy to tobacco, so that, whilst I was +formerly passionately fond of smoking, I new, very rarely, indeed, +indulge in the practice. + +My experience with regard to alcohol is precisely similar. I am very +fond of a little beer, but not when at work. The current of my +thoughts flows much more clearly and rapidly when I have had no drink. +I have a special aversion for wine, which, indeed, I do not drink at +all. Generally speaking, I can therefore say, that, in my own case, +tobacco and alcohol have a disturbing effect, when doing mental work. +This you will, of course, take as applying to myself alone. I know +some very respectable scholars in this town and neighbourhood who are +only capable of thinking and working properly when under the influence +of tobacco. + +MAGNUS. +Breslau, February 28, 1882. + + + + +MR. EDWARD MAITLAND, B. A. + + +In reply to your enquiries, I have to say that my experience of the +effects of alcohol and tobacco upon intellectual work is a very +limited one, owing to the very moderate use I have made of either. So +far, however, as my experience goes, my conclusions are as follows: +tobacco, though it may, indeed, give a momentary fillip to the +faculties, lessens their power of endurance; for by lowering the +action of the heart, it diminishes the blood supply to the brain, +leaving it imperfectly nourished, and flaccid, and unable, there-fore, +to make due response to the demands of its owner, the man within, who +seeks to manifest himself through the organism. Of an organism thus +affected, as of an underpitched musical instrument, the tones will be +flat. Of stimulants, the effect is the contrary. Owing to the +over-tension of the strings, the music will be sharp. It is apt also +to be irregular and discordant, owing to the action set up in the +organism itself--an action which is not that of the performer or man. +That which alone ought to find expression, is the central, informing +spirit of the individual; and for both idea and expression to be +perfect, the first essential is purity, mental as well as physical. +Hence, however great a man and his work may be, under the influence of +alcohol or tobacco, or on a diet of flesh, they would be still greater +on pure natural regimen. Of course, there are cases in abundance in +which persons have become so depraved by evil habits, as to be utterly +incapacitated through the disuse of that to which they have been +accustomed. But no sound argument in favour of the abuse can be +founded on this. + +EDWARD MAITLAND. +March 20, 1882. + + + + +SIR THEODORE MARTIN, K. C. B. + + +To myself tobacco is simply poison, and I believe it is so to very +many who use it. I have seen proofs that it is so among the friends of +my youth, who certainly hurt their health and shortened their lives by +smoking. But, on the other hand, I have known others who smoked with +impunity, and even with benefit to their nervous system. These, +however, are, in my experience, exceptional cases. Wine in moderation +is, I am sure, beneficial to brain workers; and I feel confident that +it is far better, as a rule, to assist the system by this, than by +food without wine or alcohol, which, in my experience, seems always to +lead to eating to an extent that is very apt to cause derangement of +the functions of the body. But, really, I have not made my +observations either with such care or on so wide a scale as to give +them any value. + +THEODORE MARTIN. +February 18, 1882. + + + + +THE REV. JAMES MARTINEAU, D. D. + + +Having kept no record of my dietary and health, I can give you no +more exact report than my memory supplies. Of tobacco, I have nothing +to say, except that my intense dislike of it has restricted my +travelling to a minimum, and kept me from all public places where I +am liable to encounter its sickening effects. My first prolonged +experience of abstinence from wine and malt liquor ran through about +seven years, dating, I think, from 1842. The change was not great in +itself, and I always thought it favourable in its effects. At no time +of my life did I sustain a heavier pressure of work and of anxiety. +But in the spring of 1849, when I was living with my family in +Germany, I fell into a low state of health, indicated by fluttering +circulation in going upstairs, or up-hill; and, under medical advice, +I adopted the habit of taking, daily, I suppose about half-a-pint +bottle of _Vin ordinam._ I recovered completely, and adhered for +several years to the allowance (or its equivalent) which had been +prescribed to me. Under this regimen, however, I became, after a +time, subject to occasional slight attacks of gout, and to some +disturbance of digestion and of sleep. In spite of medical advice, I +determined to revert to the abstinence in which I had never lost +faith. For a time of, I suppose, from twelve to fifteen years, I have +persisted in this rule; not, indeed, being under any vow, but +practically not taking more than half-a-dozen glasses of wine per +annum. During this time, I have escaped, apparently, all tendency to +gouty affections; have returned to untroubled sleep and digestion; +and, notwithstanding the advance of old age (I am now 77), have +retained the power of mental application, with only this abatement +perceptible to myself, that a given task requires a somewhat longer +time than in fresher days. Though the sedentary life of a student is +not very favourable to the maintenance of muscular vigour, it has not +yet forbidden me the annual delight of reaching the chief summits of +the Cairn Gorm mountains during my summer residence in Inverness. I +will only add that I have never found the slightest difficulty, +physical or moral, in an instantaneous change of habit to complete +abstinence. Instead of feeling any depressing want of what I had +relinquished, I have found a direct refreshment and satisfaction in +the simpler modes of life. Few things, I believe, do more, at a +minimum of cost, to lighten the spirits and sweeten the temper of +families and of society, than the repudiation of artificial +indulgences. + +JAMES MARTINEAU. +December 1, 1882. + + + + +DR. HENRY MAUDSLEY. + + +I don't consider alcohol or tobacco to be in the least necessary or +beneficial to a person who is in good health; and I am of opinion that +any supposed necessity of one or the other to the hardest and best +mental or bodily work, by such a person, is purely fanciful. He will +certainly do harder and sounder work without them. I am speaking, of +course, of a person in health; by a person not in health they may be +used properly, from time to time, as any other drug would be used. + +HENRY MAUDSLEY. +February 13, 1882. + + + + +SIR THOMAS ERSKINE MAY, K. C. B., D. C. L. + + +In reply to your inquiries, I can give you my experience in a few +words. I can offer no opinion as to the effects of tobacco, as I have +never been a smoker. My experience of many years favours the view that +moderation in food and drink is the great secret of physical health, +mental activity and endurance. On several occasions while working +twelve and fourteen hours a day, I tried total abstinence, but I found +myself dyspeptic and stupid, and was obliged to resume my accustomed +potations. I have found that any unusual amount of alcohol, while +stimulating mental activity for a time, soon produced lassitude and +sleepiness. + +T. ERSKINE MAY. +February 23, 1882. + + + + +REV. JOHN E. B. MAYOR, +M. A. FELLOW OF ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE, AND PROFESSOR OF LATIN IN THE +UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE. + + +When I was a school-boy of eight or nine, I was persuaded to buy some +cigars and put one to my mouth for a moment. I threw it away, and have +never touched tobacco since. I compute that I must have saved some +1500 pounds by abstaining from this narcotic. My two brothers--one 3rd +wrangler, the other 2nd classic--have also abstained for life. I know +no indulgence which leads people to disregard the feelings of others +so utterly as smoking does; nor can I believe a deadly poison can be +habitually taken without great injury to the nerves. Alcohol I have +not touched for more than two years, nor flesh meat, nor tea, nor +coffee. All my life long I have had no difficulty in adopting any diet +whatever; but I am sure that since I confined myself to fruits and +farinacea, life has gone easier with me. No one ever heard me complain +of the want of a dinner, or of the quality of what was set before me; +but I now know that a day or two's fasting will do me no sort of harm, +[Footnote: Twice in my life I have tried the experiment of a +_strictly_ vegetarian diet (_without milk, batter, eggs, fish +or flesh_)-once when I was about twelve years old, and again, for +forty-eight days, beginning On the 25th June, 1878. I had been for +some months taking regular exercise (a rare thing with me), walking on +four miles every morning from six to seven, so that I was in rude +health. I was just beginning a stiff piece of literary work on +Juvenal, which involved the daily examination of several hundred +passages of authors, chiefly Greek and Latin; and I wished to try how +far vegetarian diet would enable me to resist the depressing influence +of fasting. I mapped out my forty-eight days into four divisions of +twelve each, intending (if all went well) to fast every other day for +the first twelve; every third for the second; every fourth for the +third; and every sixth for the last twelve. I thought it prudent to +consult a doctor (a thing which I have scarcely ever had occasion to +do), who bid me go to the prison to be weighed every two or three +days and to show myself to him twice a week. I did not quite carry +out my scheme, but I did complete more than half--and the severer +half--with no ill effects, fasting June 25, 27, 29, July 2, 5, 7. 10, +13, completing that is, two-thirds of my design for the first twelve +days, and the whole of that for the second. I drank water freely on +the fasting days, but ate nothing for a period varying from +twenty-eight to about thirty-five hours. On the eating days, and for +the remainder of the forty-eight, I lived on fruits, vegetables, or +wholemeal biscuits or wheatmeal or oatmeal porridge. I never was more +fiercely eager for work in my life, nor did my pulse give way, but I +lost flesh rapidly, and had never much to spare. On the whole I lost +13 lbs., and was advised by the doctor to stay there, as it is much +easier to let yourself down than to pick up again. For years I have +been striking off one luxury after another in my diet when alone, till +at last I have come to dry bread (or biscuit or porridge) and water.-- +_Herald of Health, September, 1881_.] and that whether I dine in +hall with my brother fellows, or take two or three biscuits in my own +room, makes no odds. I am more independent, and certainly more able to +influence the habits of the poor than I was. + +JOHN E. B. MAYOR. +March 2, 1882. + + + + +THE ABBE MOIGNO. + + +I am grateful to you for thinking of me in your generous enquiry +about the best conditions of literary and scientific composition. I +can hardly offer myself as an example, because my constitution is +rather too exceptional, but my experience may have some degree of +usefulness. I have already published a hundred and fifty volumes, +small and great. I scarcely ever leave my writing table. I never take +a walk, nor recreation, even after meals; and yet have not felt any +head-ache, constipation, or any derangement in the urinary organs. I +have never had occasion to have recourse to stimulants, coffee, +alcohol, tobacco, &c., in order to work, or to obtain clearness of +mind. On the contrary, stimulants give rise in my case to abnormal +vibrations in the brain, which are adverse to its quick and regular +working. + +Several times in my life I fell into the habit of taking snuff. It is +a fatal habit, dirty to begin with, since it puts a cautery to the +nose, filth in the pocket, is extremely unwholesome; for he who takes +snuff finds his nose stopped up every morning, his breathing +difficult, his voice harsh and snuffling, because the action of +tobacco consists in drawing the humours to the brain; fatal, at last, +because the use of snuff weakens and destroys, by degrees, the memory. +This last effect is fully proved by my own professional experiences, +and that of many others. + +I learned twelve foreign languages by the method I published in my +"_Latin for all;_" that is to say, I draw up the catalogue of +1,500, or 1,800 radical or primitive simple words, and engraved them +upon my mind by means of mnemonic formulas. In that way I had learned +about 41,500 words, whose meaning is generally, or most frequently, +without connection with the word itself, and from 10,000 to 12,000 +historical facts, with their precise date. All this existed +simultaneously in my mind, always at my disposal when I wanted the +meaning of a word or the date of an event. If anyone asked me who was +the twenty-fifth king of England, for instance, I saw in my brain that +it was Edward, surnamed Plantagenet, who ascended the throne in 1154. +With respect to philology or chronology, I was the most extraordinary +man of my time, and Francis Arago jokingly threatened to have me burnt +like a wizard. But I had again fallen into the practice of +snuff-taking during a stay of some weeks in Munich, where I spent my +evenings in a smoking room with the learned Bavarians, each of whom +ate four or five meals a day, and drank two or three jugs of beer. The +most illustrious of these learned men, Steinhein, boasted of smoking +6,000 cigars a year. I attained to smoking three or four cigars a day. +While drawing up my treatise on the Calculus of Variations, the most +difficult of my mathematical treatises, I unconsciously emptied my +snuff-box, which contained twenty-five grammes (nearly an ounce) of +snuff; and one day I was painfully surprised to find that I was +obliged to have recourse to my dictionary for the meaning of foreign +words. I found that the dates of the numerous facts I had learnt by +heart had fallen from my mind. Such a thing has rarely or seldom +happened before. Distressed at this sorrowful decay of my memory, I +made an heroic resolution, which nothing has disturbed since. On the +1st of August, 1863, I smoked three cigars and used twenty-five +centimes (2-1/2d.) worth of snuff; from the following day to June, +1882, I have neither taken a pinch of snuff nor smoked a single +cigarette. + +It was for me a complete resurrection, not only of memory, but of +general health and well-being. It was only necessary for me to do, +what I did eighteen years later, to lessen nearly one-half the +quantity of food which I took every day, to eat less meat and more +vegetables, to obtain such incomparable health, of which it is hardly +possible to form any idea, unlimited capacity of labour, perfect +digestion, absence of wrinkles, pimples; and I beg leave to affirm +that those who tread in my footsteps will be as sound as I am. Add to +this the habit, irrevocably established, of never saying, I +_shall_ do, nor I am doing, but I _have done_, and you have +the secret of the enormous amount of work I have been able to +accomplish, and am accomplishing every day, in spite of my eighty +years. Nobody will dispute me the honour of being the greatest +hard-working man of my century. + +I ought, finally, to add that I find it well for me to take at +breakfast a small half-cup of coffee without milk, to which, when only +two or three teaspoonful remain at the bottom of the cup, I add a +small spoonful of brandy, or other alcoholic liquor. That is my whole +allowance of stimulants. How happy would those be who should adopt my +_regime_. They would be able, without harm, to sit at their desk +immediately after breakfast, and to stay there till dinner-time. No +sooner would they be in bed, at about nine o'clock, but they would be +softly asleep a few minutes later, and could rise at five in the +morning, full of strength, after a nourishing sleep of eight hours. + +ABBE F. MOIGNO. +July 20, 1882. + + + + +REV. J. MORRISON, D. D., +PRINCIPAL OF THE EVANGELICAL UNION COLLEGE. + + +For my kind of work, I have found it absolutely necessary to abstain +altogether from the use of both alcohol and tobacco. + +J. MORRISON. +May 11, 1882. + + + + +MR. AUGUSTUS MONGREDIEN. + + +I am 75 years of age. I have smoked moderately all my life; and for +the last fifty years have never, except in rare and short instances of +illness, retired to bed without one tumbler of whiskey toddy. You will +therefore see that I am utterly incompetent to pronounce on the +respective effects, on the mind and body, of moderate indulgence, and +of total abstinence, for I have never tried the latter. + +A. MONGREDIEN. March 10, 1882. + + + +DR. J. A. H. MURRAY, +EX-PRESIDENT OF THE PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY, AND EDITOR OF ITS ENGLISH +ETYMOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL DICTIONARY. + + +I use no stimulants of any kind, and should be very sorry to do so. I +thought it was now generally admitted that the more work a man has to +do, the less he can afford to muddle himself in any way. But as I have +never tried the experiment in using either alcohol or tobacco, and +cannot afford to do it, I have no comparative experience to offer. It +might be beneficial; I do not believe it would, and prefer not to risk +the chance. _Fiat experimentum in corpore viliore_. + +J. A. H. MURRAY. +March 2, 1882. + + + + +MR. D. CHRISTIE MURRAY. + + +I should have thought that the universal experience of mankind had +already been set on record without much ambiguity. It has been my +practice to smoke at work, and I do not think I could get along +without tobacco now, unless I made an effort, the profit of which +could scarcely justify the pains. As a matter of nature, I do not +believe that a man works either better or worse for the use of +tobacco, unless he smokes so much as to injure his general health. +Alcoholic drinks are, of course, mentally as well as physically +stimulative, and I have found them useful at a pinch. But everybody +knows that stimulants are reactionary, and it is pretty certain that +in the end they take more out of a man than they put into him. Under +extraordinary pressure they have their uses, but their habitual +employment muddles the faculties, and the last state of the man who +constantly works on them is worse than the first. Continually taken +alone, and as a stimulant to mental exertion, their influences on a +man of average formation are fatal. But I should have thought all +these things settled long ago, unless it were in junior debating +societies. + +D. CHRISTIE MURRAY. +April 11, 1882. + + + + +PROFESOR NEWMAN. + + +In boyhood, I perceived that to my younger sisters mere drops of wine +caused coughing and spitting, and the heat of wine to my own palate +and throat was offensive. Beer, ale, and porter disgusted me by their +bitterness. Porter was peculiarly nauseous to me. I early saw the +ill-effects of wine on youths, and was frightened by accounts of +college drunkenness. For this reason, as well as from economy, I +never became a wine-drinker, further than to drink healths by just +colouring water in a glass. I have never dreamed of needing wine, +though often in old time ordered by physicians to drink it. Not +having then the same power to look over their heads-which experience +of their changes and their follies has brought to me-I used to obey a +little while, but quickly reverted to my glass of water, and never +had reason to believe, from my own case, that there was any advantage +from the wine. In 1860-1, the Parisian experiments proved that all +alcohol arrests digestion. Since then I have called myself a +teetotaler. To me it seems clear that love of the drink, or fear of +losing patients by forbidding it, are the true cause of the fuss made +in its favour. I grieve that so noble a fruit as grapes should be +wasted on wine. The same remark will hold of barley, of honey, of +raisins, of dates: from which men make intoxicating drinks. As to +tobacco-while I was in Turkey more than fifty years ago, I learned to +smoke Turkish tobacco in a long Turkish pipe, partly to relieve evil +smells, partly because it is uncivil there to refuse the proffered +pipe. I never was aware of good or evil from it, and with perfect +ease laid it aside when I quitted the soil of Asia. After this, a +cigar was recommended to me in England, as a remedy for loss of +sleep, but the essential oil of tobacco so near to my nose disgusted +me, and the heat or smoke distressed my eyes. I have never felt any +pleasure, rather annoyance, from English smoking; and since the late +Sir Benjamin Brodie published his pamphlet against it (perhaps in +1855), I have learned that the practice is simply baneful. They say +"it soothes"--which I interpret to mean--"it makes me inattentive and +dreamy." + +FRANCIS W. NEWMAN. +March 2, 1882. + + + + +THE REV. MARK PATTISON, B. D. + + +The story of my personal experiences of alcohol is one which would +require more time than I can now command to write properly. I can now +only say that I did not begin wine, as a habit, till I was +thirty-seven; that, at first, an occasional effect was favourable to +the brain power, but always followed by corresponding reaction towards +feebleness. About fifty-seven, I was obliged to give up wine +altogether; I found great general advantage from doing so, and no +disadvantage whatever as regards mental activity. I am now +sixty-eight, and take a glass of claret every third day, or oftener. +This medicine does not produce any perceptible effect on the brain +directly, but I have a fancy that I sleep better after wine; and sleep +I have always looked to as the best brain restorative. [Footnote: +SLEEP IS THE BEST STIMULANT.--The best possible thing for a man to do +when he feels too weak to carry anything through is to go to bed and +sleep for a week, if he can. This is the only recuperation of +brain-power, the only recuperation of brain-force; because during +sleep the brain is in a state of rest, in a condition to receive and +appropriate particles of nutriment from the blood, which take the +place of those that have been consumed in previous labour, since the +very act of thinking consumes or burns up solid particles, as every +turn of the wheel or screw of the steamer is the result of the +consumption by fire of the fuel in the furnace. The supply of consumed +brain-substance can only be had from the nutritive particles in the +blood, which were obtained from the food eaten previously; and the +brain is so constituted that it can best receive and appropriate to +itself those nutritive particles during a state of rest, of quiet, and +stillness of sleep. Mere stimulants supply nothing in themselves; they +goad the brain, and force it to a greater consumption of its +substance, until the substance has been so exhausted that there is not +power enough left to receive a supply, just as men are so near death +by thirst and starvation that there is not power enough left to +swallow anything, and is over.--_Scientific American_.] Spirits I +have never drunk; Though I have been a smoker for many years, I cannot +say anything as to its effects. + +MARK PATTISON. +March 16, 1882. + + + + +MR. JAMES PAYN. + + +In common with nine-tenths of my literary brethren, I am a constant +smoker. I smoke the whole time I am engaged in composition (three +hours _per diem_), and after meals; but very light tobacco-- +_latakia_. [Footnote: Latakia, or Turkish, are called mild +tobaccos, and although they produce dryness of the tongue, from the +ammonia evolved in their smoke, they do not upset the digestion so +materially, nor nauseate so much as the stronger tobaccos, unless they +are indiscriminately used.--DR. B. W. RICHARDSON. ("_Diseases of +Modern Life_")] That it stimulates the imagination, I have little +doubt; and as I have worked longer and more continuously for thirty +years than any other author (save one); I cannot believe that tobacco +has done me any harm. Those who object to it have never tried it, or +find it disagrees with them. How can they, therefore, be in a position +to judge? I find cigars disagree with me but I do not on that account +pronounce them unwholesome for everybody. I drink very little +alcohol--only light claret, and occasionally dry champagne--but I do +not know what effect drinking alcohol has upon composition. + +JAMES PAYN. + + + + +MR. EIZAK PITMAN, +AUTHOR OV "FONOGRAFI OR FONETIK SHORTHAND," AND ORIJINATER OV THE +SPELING REFORM. + + +If a breef skech ov mei leif, and the deietetik maner ov it, wil be +ov servis tu you, ei gladly giv it. Your rekwest abzolvz me from the +impiutashon ov boasting. If you make it publik, pray let it be printed +in the parshiali reformd speling in hwich it iz riten. + +Ei hav been an abstainer from the stimiulant alkohol nearli all mei +leif, and ei hav alwayz refraind from the seduktiv influens ov the +sedativ tobako. Ei hav therefor no eksperiens tu ofer ov their use, +eksept that about 1838 ei woz rekomended tu take a glas ov wein per +day az a tonik, and az a remedi for dispepsia, hwich then began tu +trubel me. After obeying this medikal preskripshon for a year or two, +and feinding no releef from it, ei gave up both the wein and the use +ov flesh, "the brandi ov deiet;" the dispepsia disapeard, and haz +never vizited me sins. + +Ei am nou verjing on seventi. Ei intensli enjoi leif and labor, and +rekweir nuthing beyond the laborz ov the day, and the walk tu and from +mei ofis, hwich iz a meil, tu indius refreshing sleep. Ei keep up mei +leif-long praktis ov reteiring at ten o'klok, and being at mei desk at +siks. About three yearz ago ei adopted the kustom ov taking a siesta +for half an our after diner. It iz wel, az Milton obzervz, tu giv the +bodi rest diuring the ferst konkokshon ov the prinsipal meal. + +The uzhual sumer vizit tu the sea-seid woz unnon tu me til ei woz +fifti yearz ov aje. From 1837 (the date ov the publikashon ov +"Fonografi") tu 1861 (the date ov mei sekond maraje), nearli a kworter +ov a sentiuri, ei wurkt on from siks in the morning til bed-teim, ten +o'klok, without an intervening thought ov a holiday. Ei felt no wont +ov a temporeri respit from labor bekauz ei tuk no ekseiting food or +drink; and ei shud az soon hav meditated a breach in the Dekalog az a +breach in mei daili round ov diutiz bei eidling at the sea-seid. In +1861 ei relakst, and komenst the praktis ov leaving mei ofis at siks +in the evening. At the same teim ei komenst viziting the variiis +watering plasez, or going tu the Kontinent in the sumer for four or +feiv weeks. This rekriashon ei have taken more for the sake ov mei +weif and two sunz than from eni feeling ov nesesiti for it on mei own +part. + +From mei own eksperiens ov the benefits ov abstinens from the sedativ +alkohol, and the stimulants tobako and snuf; and mei obzervashon ov +the efekts ov theze thingz on personz who indulj in them, ei hav a +ferm konvikshon that they ekserseiz a dedli influens on the hiuman +rase. + +EIZAK PITMAN. +March 25, 1882. + + + + +M. GASTON PLANTE. + + +I am much flattered by the interest that you attach to my opinion on +the subject of the influence that certain substances can have upon +thought and upon intellectual work. I must tell you frankly that I +have not found that tobacco or alcohol have an advantageous influence. +It is true that I have not made much use of them--I have never taken +pure spirits, such as brandy, but only of wine containing a little. I +have been obliged sometimes, in trying to fortify my health, to take +some Bordeaux wine, and I have not observed that any appreciable +effect resulted from it upon the facility of intellectual work. From +the point of view of health, I counted particularly upon the iron +contained in good Bordeaux wine, but I have found that the alcohol in +the wine over-excited the nervous system, provoked sleeplessness and +cramps; and I have finally adopted as a drink wine mixed with water, +and even this in very small quantities. As to tobacco, I have also +tried it; and far from thinking that it favours intellectual work, I +believe, with one of our learned writers (the Abbe Moigno, Editor of +the "_Journal du Mondes_"), that its use tends to weaken the +memory. Neither do I make use of coffee, which equally excites the +nervous system, although, like all the world, I have observed that +this substance gives a certain intellectual activity. What I have +found out most clearly is what everyone has observed from time +immemorial--that the clearest ideas, the happiest and most fruitful +expressions, come in the morning, after the repose of the night, and +after sleep--when one has it, but of which I have not a very large +share. I attach so much importance to the ideas which come during the +night or in the morning, that I have always at the head of my bed +paper and pencil suspended by string, by the help of which I write +every morning the ideas I have been able to conceive, particularly +upon subjects of scientific research. [Footnote: Curtis, I think, says +that whenever Emerson has a "happy thought," he writes it down, be it +dawn or midnight, and when Mrs. Emerson, startled in the night by some +unusual sound, cries, "What is the matter? Are you ill?" the +philosopher's soft voice answers, "No, my dear, only an idea."-- +_Appleton's New York Journal, Nov., 1873.] I write these notes +in obscurity, and decipher and develop them in the morning, pen in +hand. This is the reply I can make to your interesting enquiry. I +shall be happy to know the conclusion to which you will be conducted +by the information which you will have been able to collect. + +GASTON PLANTE. + + + + +THE REV. A. PLUMMER, +HEAD MASTER OF THE DURHAM COLLEGE. University Tutor and Lecturer, and +University Proctor. + + +I am a firm believer in the value of a moderate use of tobacco and +alcohol for the brain worker. I generally smoke one pipe in the +morning, _before_ work, and one at night, _after_ work (or +the equivalents of a pipe). I seldom smoke _while_ I work, and do +not find it helpful. I drink two glasses of sherry (or their +equivalents), as a rule daily, and take them at late dinner--not at +lunch. If troubled with sleeplessness, I find a glass of sherry, and a +few biscuits, followed by smoking, a tolerably safe cure, but not +always to be relied upon. I should be very sorry to attempt to do +without these two helps. Of the two I believe the smoking to be the +more valuable, especially when (what is far worse than heavy work) +_worry_ is pressing upon one. I am wholly sceptical as to the +value of work before breakfast. Let a man get up as early as he likes: +but don't let him try to work on an empty stomach. The Irishman was +wise who said that when he worked before breakfast, he always had +something to eat first. + +A. PLUMMER +April 6, 1882. + + + + +MR. EDWARD POCKNELL, +(POCKNELL'S PRESS AGENCY AND LONDON ASSOCIATED REPORTERS.) + +In reply to your letter, I should say that tobacco has some action on +the brain; but I think its action different in different people, and +at different times in the same person. I think the action soothing +after food, but exciting on an empty stomach. In the former case I +think it promotes thinking in this way:--that the mind concentrates +its attention better during the mechanical operation of "puffing", +than when it is liable to be disturbed when not so occupied. For this +reason I should say that smoking does help to get through work late at +night. I find frequently that having commenced to write with a fresh +pipe in my mouth, I go on a long time after it goes out; but as it +remains in my mouth, it seems to have almost the same effect till the +discovery, at some pause, that my pipe is out; and then it is a +relaxation to spare a moment to refill it. I do not look upon smoking +as a necessity to mental labour; but it seems to me, as a smoker, an +agreeable and useful method for concentrating thought upon any +subject. But I think it would be difficult to lay down any general +rule for persons of different constitutions. + +E. POCKNELL. +March 10, 1882. + + + + +PROFESSOR GEORGE RAWLINSON. + + +Although it does not appear to me that the method of your enquiry can +lead to any important results, you are quite welcome to any +information that I can give you on the subject. I was brought up to +take daily a moderate amount of beer or wine, and have continued to do +so all my lifetime, with the exception that my beer has been cut off, +and I have been recommended to take a little brandy and soda-water, or +whiskey and soda-water instead. I smoked an occasional cigar when I +was young, but never much liked tobacco, and gave up the practice +entirely when I was about five and twenty. I have never tried leaving +off alcoholic liquors, being advised medically that it would probably +be injurious to me to do so. I am, therefore, quite unable to say what +effect my doing so would have on my powers of thought and work. + +GEORGE RAWLINSON. +March 28, 1882. + + + + +MR. CHARLES READE. + + +Your subject is important, and your method of enquiry sound. I wish I +could throw any light, but I cannot more than this. I tried to smoke +five or six times, but it always made me heavy and rather sick; +therefore, as it is not a necessary of life, and costs money, and +makes me sick, I spurned it from me. I have never felt the want of it. +I have seen many people the worse for it. I have seen many people +apparently none the worse for it. I never saw anybody perceptibly the +better for it. + +C. READE. +Feb. 2, 1882. + + + + +MR. THOMAS ALLEN REED. + + +You ask me whether I have found tobacco or wine a help to me in my +work. No! As to the first, for the sufficient reason that I have never +tried it. I never smoked a pipe or a cigar in my life, and have no +intention of commencing the practice. When, more than thirty years +ago, I entered upon my profession, I was told by my _confreres_ +that I should soon follow their example, and they smiled at my +innocence when I declared that I thought they were mistaken. As to +alcohol, I am not a teetotaler, but I think I can truly say that I +never found the least benefit from wine or beer in my daily or nightly +work. Indeed, I consider them rather a hindrance, having a tendency to +make one heavy and sleepy. I have been, and am still, a tolerably hard +worker, without the use of artificial stimulants, and judging from my +own experience, and that of many others with whom I have been +connected in my professional labours, I don't believe in their +efficacy. If I take a glass of wine occasionally (not a frequent +indulgence with me) it is because I like it, not because I think it +helps me in my work. + +T. A. REED. +Feb. 18, 1882. + + + + +DR. JULIUS RODENBERG. + + +I have smoked from my seventeenth year, and could not do without it +now. On the whole, I am but a moderate smoker, and seldom smoke whilst +walking, but at work I must have my cigar, and find it agrees very +well with my health. Most of my learned and literary friends smoke; +but two or three of them have given it up in their later years without +visible effect upon their health or mental strength. As to alcohol, I +could not stand to drink brandy. Sometimes I drink a glass, but only +as an exception. I find it much more convenient for me, and a good +help to work, to take now and then a bottle of hock or champagne; but, +as a rule, I drink half a bottle of claret at dinner, and a pint of +beer at supper. I generally write in the morning from nine to +half-past one, when I dine; and from five o'clock in the afternoon to +nine, when I take supper, but I could not bear to drink either wine or +beer while at work. + +JULIUS RODENBERG. +March 12, 1882. + + + + +DR. W. H. RUSSELL. + + +I am not able to give you any very positive expression of opinion on +the matter respecting which you write, but I can say that I have +smoked tobacco and taken wine for years, and though I cannot aver that +I should not have done as well without them, I have felt comforted and +sustained in my work by both at times, especially by the weed. +However, I was very well in the last campaign in South Africa, where +for some time we had neither wine nor spirits. Climate has a good deal +to say to the craving for a stimulant, and men in India, who never +drink in England, there consume "pegs" and cheroots enormously. Of +course, tobacco is to be put out of account in relation to great +workers and thinkers up to the close of the middle ages, but the +experience of antiquity would lead one to infer that the moderate use +of wine, at all events, was not unfavourable to the highest brain +development and physical force. Bismarck and Moltke are very great +smokers; neither is a temperance man. In effect, I am inclined to +think that tobacco and stimulants are hurtful mostly in the case of +inferior organizations of brain physique, where their use is only a +concomitant of baser indulgences, and uncontrolled by intelligence and +will. I am quite in favour, therefore, of legislative interference, +and almost inclined to supporting the Permissive Bill. + +W. H. RUSSELL. +Feb. 23, 1882. + + + + +(For) MR. JOHN RUSKIN. + + +You are evidently unaware that Mr. Ruskin entirely abhors the +practice of smoking, in which he has never indulged. His dislike of +it is mainly based upon his belief (no doubt a true one) that a cigar +or pipe will very often make a man content to be idle for any length +of time, who would not otherwise be so. The excessive use of tobacco +amongst all classes abroad, both in France and Italy, and the +consequent spitting everywhere and upon everything, has not tended to +lessen his antipathy. I have heard him allow, however, that there is +reason in the soldiers and the sailors' pipe, as being some protection +against the ill effects of exposure, etc. As to the effect of tobacco +on the brain, I know that he considers it anything but beneficial. + +Feb. 12, 1882. + + + + +KESHUB CHUNDER SEN. + + +The problem you have undertaken to solve is, indeed, one of intense +importance and interest, and all who can ought to help its solution in +the interests both of science and morality. I feel thankful for the +honour you have done me in inviting my opinion on the subject. As a +teetotaler I abstain wholly from intoxicating drinks and stimulants, +and discourage the use of the same in others. From boyhood up to the +present time--I am now 44--I have never been in the habit of drinking +or of smoking, nor did it ever occur to me that such habits were +essential to health or helpful to brain work. It is my firm conviction +that neither the head nor the hand derives any fresh power from the +use of stimulants. It is only habits already contracted which give to +alcohol and tobacco their so-called stimulating properties, and +engender a strong craving for them, which those who are not enslaved +by such habits never experience. I must not, however, place alcohol +and tobacco on the same level. The latter is comparatively harmless; +the former is a prolific source of evil in society, and often acts +like deadly poison. + +KESHUB CHUNDER SEN. +July 29, 1882. + + + + +M. JULES SIMON. + + +Some twenty years ago I had occasion to study the condition of the +working classes, when I did not fail to observe the pernicious effects +produced upon their health and morals by the use of Strong liquors. I +remember that one of the most painful results of my inquiry was that +whilst some look for pleasure in the abuse of intoxicating liquor, +others, unable to procure sufficient food, seek to blunt the edge of +their appetite by drinking a little brandy. As my researches were made +so long ago, my testimony will now be of little value. Everything +changes in twenty years, and I would fain hope that during this period +a change for the better has taken place in the habits of the people. I +have not much to say on the use of tobacco. I believe that when taken +in excess, it has a stupefying effect. I know that it may act as a +poison, for a friend of mine, a member of the Senate, who has just +died, assured me repeatedly that he was dying from the effects of +constant smoking. + +I look upon the use of tobacco, as a practice much to be deprecated, +as its tendency is to separate men from the society of women. + +JULES SIMON. +March 8, 1882. + + + + +PROFESOR SKEAT. + + +As to the benefit of alcohol and tobacco, my opinion is that there is +no _general_ rule. As for myself, my experience is, that the less +stimulant I take, the better--I have given up beer with benefit to +myself, and I have almost given up wine. I take, on an average, about +five glasses of claret per week, more by way of luxury than of use. +Tobacco I never use, as smoking seems to me to be rather a waste of +time. + +WALTER W. SKEAT. +March 18, 1882. + + + + +M. BARTHELEMY ST. HILAIRE. + + +I have no difficulty in making known to you my views on the effects +of tobacco and alcohol. I believe both to be extremely injurious, as +they are the cause of many diseases, even when taken in small +quantities, and much more so when indulged in to excess. I have never +used them personally, but I have only too often observed their +baneful influence on individuals of my acquaintance. I do not even +consider wine to be harmless, especially as it is most usually +adulterated. I have abstained from it for many years, indeed for +nearly a lifetime, with great advantage. In our climate none of these +stimulants are needed, and I very much question whether they are more +necessary elsewhere. + +Accept my thanks for the questions you have addressed to me. + +B. ST. HlLAIRE. +Feb. 24, 1882. + + + + +MR. W. SPOTTISWOODE, D. C. L., LL. D., +PRESIDENT OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY. + + +In reply to your enquiry, I beg to say that I have never smoked, and +that I take wine only at meals, and in moderation. I have never +observed any noticeable effect from wine so taken on mental work, but +should think it quite insignificant. + +W. SPOTTISWOODE. + + + + +DR. C. W. SIEMENS, D. C. L., F. R. S. + + +My experience has only extended to a very moderate use of alcohol and +tobacco. I find that even the most moderate use of tobacco is +decidedly hurtful to energetic mental effort. With regard to alcohol, +a very moderate amount does not appear to depress the mental +condition, under ordinary circumstances, but I find that although I +never indulged in its use I can do very well without it, and I am +doing with less and less. Under certain conditions, however, I find +that alcohol has a beneficial effect in restoring both mind and body +to a state of power and activity. + +C. W. SIEMENS. +Dec. 4th, 1882. + + + + +MR. G. BARNETT SMITH. + + +I should probably not be accepted as an authority upon the tobacco +question, as I have never smoked a pipe or cigar in my life. As to the +use of alcohol, the moderate quantity I have taken has not been +detrimental to me, and, in consequence of the state of my health, it +has sometimes been necessary. No doubt a larger quantity of stimulant +than is essential is taken by many literary men, and by other classes +of the community; but a moderate quantity would, I believe, be found +beneficial by most writers. Of course, if a man finds that he can do +quite as well without alcohol, he is undoubtedly wise in discarding +it. + +G. BARNETT SMITH. +March 28, 1882. + + + + +M. TAINE. + + +I regret that it is not in my power to give you the information you +ask. I have not made the question a study, and have no fixed opinion +about it. All that I can say is that I have never made use of alcohol +in any form as an essential stimulant. Coffee suits me much better. +Alcohol, so far as I can judge, is good only as a physical stimulant +after great physical fatigue, and even then it should be taken in very +small quantities. As for tobacco, I have the bad habit of smoking +cigarettes, and find them useful between two ideas,--when I have the +first but have not arrived at the second; but I do not regard them as +a necessity. It is probable that there is a little diversion produced +at the same time, a little excitement and exhilaration. But every +custom of this kind becomes tyrannical, and the observations which +accompany your letter are very judicious. Among the men of letters and +men of science around me there is not one to my knowledge who in order +to think and to write has recourse to spirituous liquors; but +three-fourths of them smoke, and almost all take before their work a +cup of coffee. I have seen English journalists writing their articles +by night with the aid of a bottle of champagne. With us, the articles +are written in the day time, and our journalists have, therefore, no +necessity to resort to this stimulant. + +H. TAINE. +March 28, 1882. + + + + +MR. ANTHONY TROLLOPE. + + +I have been a smoker nearly all my life. Five years ago I found it +certainly was hurting me, causing my hand to shake and producing +somnolence. I gave it up for two years. A doctor told me I had smoked +too much (three large cigars daily). Two years since I took to it +again, and now smoke three small cigars (very small), and, so far as I +can tell, without any effect. + +ANTHONY TROLLOPE. +Feb. 11, 1882. + + + + +SIR WILLIAM THOMSON, M. A., LL. D., D. C. L., F. R. S. + + +The question of usefulness or the reverse of tobacco or alcohol is +one of health, and to be answered by medical men, if they can. It +seems to me that neither is of the slightest consequence as a +stimulus or help to intellectual efforts, but that either may be used +without harm or the reverse if in small enough quantities, so as not +to hurt the digestion. + +WILLIAM THOMSON. +Feb. 13, 1882. + + + + +PROFESSOR TRANTMANN, +BONN UNIVERSITY. + + +I am not a smoker, so that I am unable to make any statement +regarding the effect of tobacco. As to alcohol, I never make use of +spirits in order to stimulate my brain, but often, after working +hard, I drink a glass of beer or wine, and immediately feel relieved. + +M. TRANTMANN. +March 14, 1882. + + + + +PROFESSOR TYNDALL, LL. D., F. R. S. + + +With regard to the use of alcohol and tobacco, I do not think any +general rule can be laid down. Some powerful thinkers are very +considerable smokers, while other powerful thinkers would have been +damaged, if not ruined, by the practice. A similar remark applies in +the case of alcohol. In my opinion, the man is happiest who is so +organised as to be able to dispense with the use of both. + +JOHN TYNDALL. +Feb. 14, 1882. + + + +MR. IVAN TOURGUENEFF. + +In answer to your enquiry I have to state that I have no personal +experience of the influence of tobacco and alcohol on the mind, as I +do not smoke or use alcoholic drinks. My observations on other people +lead me to the conclusion that tobacco is generally a bad thing, and +that alcohol taken in very small quantities can produce a good effect +in some cases of constitutional debility. + +Iv. TOURGUENEFF. +March 14, 1882. + + + + +MARK TWAIN. + + +I have not had a large experience in the matter of alcoholic drinks. +I find that about two glasses of champagne are an admirable stimulant +to the tongue, and is, perhaps, the happiest inspiration for an after +dinner speech which can be found; but, as far as my experience goes, +wine is a clog to the pen, not an inspiration. I have never seen the +time when I could write to my satisfaction after drinking even one +glass of wine. As regards smoking, my testimony is of the opposite +character. I am forty-six years old, and I have smoked immoderately +during thirty-eight years, with the exception of a few intervals, +which I will speak of presently. During the first seven years of my +life I had no health--I may almost say that I lived on allopathic +medicine, but since that period I have hardly known what sickness is. +My health has been excellent, and remains so. As I have already said, +I began to smoke immoderately when I was eight years old; that is, I +began with one hundred cigars a month, and by the time I was twenty I +had increased my allowance to two hundred a month. Before I was +thirty, I had increased it to three hundred a month. I think I do not +smoke more than that now; I am quite sure I never smoke less. Once, +when I was fifteen, I ceased from smoking for three months, but I do +not remember whether the effect resulting was good or evil. I repeated +this experiment when I was twenty-two; again I do not remember what +the result was. I repeated the experiment once more, when I was +thirty-four, and ceased from smoking during a year and a half. My +health did not improve, because it was not possible to improve health +which was already perfect. As I never permitted myself to regret this +abstinence, I experienced no sort of inconvenience from it. I wrote +nothing but occasional magazine articles during pastime, find as I +never wrote one except under strong impulse, I observed no lapse of +facility. But by and by I sat down with a contract behind me to write +a book of five or six hundred pages--the book called "Roughing it"-- +and then I found myself most seriously obstructed. I was three weeks +writing six chapters. Then I gave up the fight, resumed my three +hundred cigars, burned the six chapters, and wrote the book in three +months, without any bother or difficulty. I find cigar smoking to be +the best of all inspirations for the pen, and, in my particular case, +no sort of detriment to the health. During eight months of the year I +am at home, and that period is my holiday. In it I do nothing but very +occasional miscellaneous work; therefore, three hundred cigars a month +is a sufficient amount to keep my constitution on a firm basis. During +the family's summer vacation, which we spend elsewhere, I work five +hours every day, and five days in every week, and allow no +interruption under any pretext. I allow myself the fullest possible +marvel of inspiration; consequently, I ordinarily smoke fifteen cigars +during my five hours' labours, and if my interest reaches the +enthusiastic point, I smoke more. I smoke with all my might, and allow +no intervals. + +MARK TWAIN. +March 14, 1882. + + + + +MR. CORNELIUS WALFORD, F. S. S., F. I. A. + + +The subject you enquire about is one of vital consequence to +brain-workers. I am distinctly of opinion that all stimulants are +decidedly injurious to the physical system, and that as a consequence +they tend to weaken and destroy the mental powers. I believe tobacco +to be a more insidious stimulant than alcoholic beverages. It can be +indulged in more constantly without visible degradation; but surely it +saps the powers of the mind. In this view I gave it up some years ago. +Many men say they smoke to make them think. I notice that a number of +them seem to think to very small purpose, either for themselves or +mankind generally. I am not a total abstainer, and theoretically have +had a belief that pure wine ought to be beneficial to the human +system. In practice I have not found it so, though I have always been +a very moderate drinker. I certainly never drank a glass of wine or +any other liquor in view of mental stimulus, and did not know it was +ever seriously regarded as having any such effect, except in so far +as it might invigorate the body, which I now find it does not do; but +in case of sedentary occupations is positively injurious in its +effects. Until mankind can rise above beer and tobacco, the race will +remain degraded, as it now is, mentally, socially and physically. + +P.S.--I have never had so large an amount of mental labour on hand as +now--three works in the press (including an encyclopedia, whereof all +the articles are written by myself), all requiring much thought and +research. I am taking no stimulants whatever. + +CORNELIUS WALFORD. +March 9, 1882. + + + + +MR. G. F. WATTS, R. A. + + +In answer to your letter asking for my experience and opinion as a +worker, on the subject of tobacco and alcoholic stimulants, I must +begin by saying that reflection and experience should teach us the +truth of the adage that "What is one man's meat is another man's +poison," and that what may be wisely recommended in some cases is by +no means desirable in all; in fact, that it is equally unwise and +illiberal to dogmatise upon any subject that is not capable of +scientific proof. Being myself a total abstainer from tobacco, and +equally so, when not recommended by my doctor, from wine and all +stimulants, I confess to having a strong prejudice against them. The +use of wine seems to be natural to man, and it is possible he would be +the better for it if it could be restrained within very moderate +limits; but I have good reason for concluding that the more active +stimulants are altogether harmful. It is natural as time goes on that +new wants should be acquired, and new luxuries discovered, and +doubtless it is in the abuse, and not in the use, of such things that +the danger lies; but we all know how prone humanity is to abuse in its +indulgences. It is, I believe, an admitted fact that even people who +are considered to be strictly temperate as a rule, habitually take +more wine than is good for them. With regard to tobacco, I cannot help +thinking that its introduction by civilised races has been an unmixed +evil. History shows us that before it was known the most splendid +mental achievements were carried put, and the most heroic endurance +exhibited, things done which if it be possible to rival, it is quite +impossible to excel. The soldier, and sailor, the night-watchman +especially in malarious districts may derive comfort and benefit from +its use, and there I think it should be left; for my observation has +induced me to think that nothing but evil results from its use as a +luxurious habit. The subject is doubtless one of vital interest and +importance; but I must end as I began by disclaiming a right to +dogmatise. + +G. F. WATTS. +Feb. 19, 1882. + + + + +PROFESSOR ANDREW WILSON, Ph. D., F. R. S. E. + + +The question you ask concerning the effects of alcohol and tobacco +upon the health of brain-workers, relatively (I presume) to myself, is +a complex one. Personally, I find with often excessive work in the way +of lecturing, long railway journeys, and late hours, writing at other +times, that I digest my food with greater ease when I take a little +claret or beer with meals. Experiment has convinced me that the slight +amount of alcohol I imbibe in my claret is a grateful stimulus to +digestion. As to smoking, I take an occasional cigar, but only after +dinner, and never during the day. As to health, I never suffer even +from a headache. I usually deliver 18 lectures a week, often more; and +I have often to make journeys of over 50 miles after a hard day's work +here, to lecture in the country. My writing is done at night chiefly, +but as a rule, I don't sit after 12-30. My work is exceptionally +constant, yet I seem to be exceptionally healthy. I regard my claret +or wine to meals in the same light in which others regard their tea, +as a pleasant stimulus, followed in my case by good effect. At the +same time, there may be others who may do the same amount of work as +abstainers. My position in this matter has always been that of +recognising the individual phases of the matter as the true basis of +its settlement. What I can urge is, that I am an exceptionally healthy +man, doing what I may fairly claim to be exceptionally hard work, and +careful in every respect of health, finding that a moderate quantity +of alcohol, with food, is for me better than total abstinence. +Whiskey, or alcohol, in its strong forms I never taste. + +ANDREW WILSON. +Feb. 14, 1882. + + + + +MR. JUSTIN WINSER. + + +Referring to your note, I may say that I have never used stimulants +to incite intellectual work, but have found occasionally in social +gatherings a certain intellectual exhilaration arising from its use, +which conduces to quickness of wit, etc., but perhaps not so much from +alcoholic liquors as from coffee, a cup of coffee being with me a good +preparation for an after-dinner speech. My moderate use of a stimulant +has not disclosed to me beneficial or hurtful effects. I often go long +intervals without it; and have never indulged in it, to great extent, +so that my testimony is of a narrow experience. My use of tobacco is +so inconsiderable as to show nothing. + +JUSTIN WlNSER. +March 9, 1882. + + + + +M. WURTZ, +PARIS. + + +In reply to your letter of the 7th February, I have the honour to +recall you the opinion which is current to-day among doctors of the +highest authority, namely, that the abuse of alcohol and tobacco +offers the greatest inconvenience from the point of view of health. +Alcoholism produces a state of disorder of the organism to which a +great number of maladies attach themselves. It is not a question of +the moderate use of excitants, but the limit between use and abuse is +difficult to trace, because it varies according to the country, the +climate, and the habits of the individual constitution. + +A. WURTZ. +March 14, 1882. + + + + +APPENDIX. + + + +DR. RISDON BENNETT. + + +"There are few people, I believe, who are aided in the actual +performance of brain-work by alcohol; not that many, nay, most +persons, are not rendered more ready and brilliant in conversation, or +have their imagination quickened for a time. But the steady, continued +exercise of the mental powers demanded of professional men is more +often impeded than aided at the time by alcohol." + +_Contemporary Review_, vol. 34, p. 343. + + + + +THE REV. STOPFORD A. BROOKE, M. A. + + +"It has been said that moderate doses of alcohol stimulate work into +greater activity, and make life happier and brighter. My experience, +since I became a total abstainer, has been the opposite. I have found +myself able to work better. I have a greater command over any powers I +possess. I can make use of them when I please. When I call upon them, +they answer; and I need not wait for them to be in the humour. It is +all the difference between a machine well oiled and one which has +something, among the wheels which catches and retards the movement at +unexpected times. As to the pleasure of life, it has been also +increased. I enjoy Nature, books, and men more than I did--and my +previous enjoyment of them was not small. Those attacks of depression +which come to every man at times who lives too sedentary a life rarely +visit me now, and when depression does come from any trouble, I can +overcome it far more quickly than before. The fact is, alcohol, even +in the small quantities I took it, while it did not seem to injure +health, injures the fineness of that physical balance which means a +state of health in which all the world is pleasant. That is my +experience after four months of water-drinking, and it is all the more +striking to me, because for the last four or five years I have been a +very moderate drinker. However, the experience of one man is not that +of another, and mine only goes for what it is worth to those to whom, +as much alcohol as is contained in one glass of sherry, or port, +alters away from the standard of health. I have discovered, since +abstinence, that that is true of me. And I am sure, from inquiries, I +have made, that it is true for a great many other people who do not at +all suspect it. Therefore, I appeal to the young and the old, to try +abstinence for the very reasons they now use alcohol--in order to +increase their power of work and their enjoyment of life. Let the +young make the experiment of working on water only. Alcohol slowly +corrupts and certainly retards the activity of the brain of the +greater number of men. They will be able to do all they have to do +more swiftly. And this swiftness will leave them leisure--the blessing +we want most in this over-worked world. And the leisure, not being led +away by alcohol into idleness, into depression which craves unnatural +excitement, into noisy or slothful company, will be more nobly used +and with greater joy in the usage. And the older men, who find it so +difficult to find leisure, and who when they find it cannot enjoy it +because they have a number of slight ailments which do not allow them +perfect health, or which keep them in over-excitement or +over-depression, let them try--though it will need a struggle--whether +the total abandonment of alcohol will not lessen all their ailments, +and by restoring a better temper to the body--for the body with +alcohol in it is like a house with an irritable man in it--enable them +not only to work better, but to enjoy their leisure. It is not too +much to say that the work of the world would be one-third better done, +and more swiftly done, and the enjoyment of life increased by +one-half, if no one took a drop of alcohol." + +Speech at Bedford Chapel, +July 20th, 1882. + + + + +WILLIAM C. BRYANT. +(BORN 1794; DIED 1878.) + + +I promised to give you some account of my habits of life, so far, at +least, as regards diet, exercise, and occupation. I have reached a +pretty advanced period of life, without the usual infirmities of old +age, and with my strength, activity, and bodily faculties generally in +pretty good preservation. How far this may be the effect of my way of +life, adopted long ago, and steadily adhered to, is perhaps uncertain. + +I rise early, at this time of the year about 5 1/2; in summer, half an +hour, or even an hour, earlier. Immediately, with very little +incumbrance of clothing, I begin a series of exercises, for the most +part designed to expand the chest, and at the same time call into +action all the muscles and articulations of the body. These are +performed with dumb-bells, the very lightest, covered with flannel; +with a pole, a horizontal bar, and a light chair swung around my head. +After a full hour, and sometimes more, passed in this manner, I bathe +from head to foot. When at my place in the country, I sometimes +shorten my exercises in the chamber, and, going out, occupy myself for +half an hour or more in some work which requires brisk exercise. After +my bath, if breakfast be not ready, I sit down to my studies until I +am called. + +My breakfast is a simple one--hominy and milk, or in place of hominy, +brown bread, or oat-meal, or wheaten grits, and, in the season, baked +sweet apples. Buckwheat cakes I do not decline, nor any other article +of vegetable food, but animal food I never take at breakfast. Tea and +coffee I never touch at any time. Sometimes I take a cup of chocolate, +which has no narcotic effect, and agrees with me very well. At +breakfast I often take fruit, either in its natural state or freshly +stewed. + +After breakfast I occupy myself for awhile with my studies, and then, +when in town, I walk down to the office of _The Evening Post_, +nearly three miles distant, and after about three hours, return, +always walking, whatever be the weather or the state of the streets. +In the country I am engaged in my literary tasks till a feeling of +weariness drives me out into the open air, and I go upon my farm or +into the garden and prune the trees, or perform some other work about +them which they need, and then go back to my books. I do not often +drive out, preferring to walk. + +In the country I dine early, and it is only at that meal that I take +either meat or fish, and of these but a moderate quantity, making my +dinner mostly of vegetables. At the meal which is called "tea," I take +only a little bread and butter, with fruit, if it be on the table. In +town, where I dine later, I make but two meals a day. Fruit makes a +considerable part of my diet, and I eat it at almost any part of the +day without inconvenience. My drink is water, yet I sometimes, though +rarely, take a glass of wine. I am a natural temperance man, finding +myself rather confused than exhilarated by wine. I never meddle with +tobacco, except to quarrel with its use. + +That I may rise early, I, of course, go to bed early: in town, as +early as 10; in the country, somewhat earlier. For many years I have +avoided in the evening every kind of literary occupation which tasks +the faculties, such as composition, even to the writing of letters, +for the reason that it excites the nervous system and prevents sound +sleep. + +My brother told me, not long since, that he had seen in a Chicago +newspaper, and several other Western journals, a paragraph in which it +is said that I am in the habit of taking quinine as a stimulant; that +I have depended upon the excitement it produces in writing my verses, +and that, in consequence of using it in that way, I had become as deaf +as a post. As to my deafness, you know that to be false, and the rest +of the story is equally so. I abominate all drugs and narcotics, and +have always carefully avoided every thing which spurs nature to +exertions which it would not otherwise make. Even with my food I do +not take the usual condiments, such as pepper, and the like. + +March 30, 1871. +_Hygiene of the Brain_, New York, 1878. + + + + +DR. KING CHAMBERS, +HONORARY PHYSICIAN TO H. R. H. THE PRINCE OF WALES. + + +"The physiology of the action of alcohol has a very practical bearing +on the physical regimen of the mental functions. Alcohol has the power +of curbing, arresting, and suspending all the phenomena connected with +the nervous system. We feel its influence on our thoughts as soon as +on any other part of the man. Sometimes it brings them more completely +under our command, controls and steadies them; sometimes it confuses +or disconnects them; then breaks off our power and the action of the +senses altogether. The first effect is desirable, the others to be +avoided. When a man has tired himself with intellectual exertion a +moderate quantity of alcohol taken with food acts as an anaesthetic, +stays the wear of the system which is going on, and allows the nervous +force to be diverted to the due digestion of the meal. But it must be +followed by rest from mental labour, and is, in fact, a part of the +same regimen which enforces rest--it is an artificial _rest_. To +continue to labour and at the same time to take the anaesthetic is an +inconsistency. It merely blunts the painful feeling of weariness, and +prevents it from acting as a warning. I very much doubt the quickening +or brightening of the wits which bacchanalian poets have +conventionally attributed to alcohol. An abstainer in a party of even +moderate topers finds their jokes dull and their anecdotes pointless, +and his principal amusement consists in his observation of their +curious bluntness to the groundlessness of their merriment. There is +no more fatal habit to a literary man than that of using alcohol as a +stimulant between meals. The vital powers go on getting worn out more +and more without their cry for help being perceived, and in the end +break down suddenly, and often irrevocably. The temptation is greater +perhaps to a literary man than to any other in the same social +position, especially if he has been induced by avarice, or ambition, +to work wastefully against them; and if he cannot resist it, he had +better abjure the use of alcohol altogether.... Mental activity +certainly renders the brain less capable of bearing an amount of +alcohol, which in seasons of rest and relaxation does not injuriously +affect it. When any extraordinary toil is temporarily imposed, extreme +temperance, or even total abstinence, should be the rule. Much to the +point is the experience of Byron's Sardanapalus:-- + + "The _goblet_ I reserve for hours of ease, I war on + _water_." + +"It is true that Byron assumes in his poetry the character of a +_debauche_, and says he wrote Don Juan under the influence of gin +and water. But much of that sort of talk is merely for stage effect, +and we see how industrious he was, and read of his training vigorously +to reduce corpulence, and of his being such an exceptionally +experienced swimmer as to rival Leander in crossing the Hellespont.... +The machinery of sensitive souls is as delicate as it is valuable, and +cannot bear the rough usage which coarse customs inflict upon it. It +is broken to pieces by blows which common natures laugh at. The +literary man, with his highly-cultivated, tightly-strung sensations, +is often more than others susceptible of the noxious, and less +susceptible of the beneficial results of alcohol. His mind is easier +to cloud, and there is a deeper responsibility in clouding it.... +Equally when we descend into the lower regions of Parnassus, the +abodes of talent and cleverness, and the supply of periodical literary +requirements, we find the due care of the body absolutely essential to +the continued usefulness of the intellect. The first thing to which +one entering the profession of literature must make up his mind is to +be healthy, and he can only be so by temperance.... Tobacco should not +be indulged in during working hours. Whatever physiological effect it +has is sedative, and so obstructs mental operations." + +_Manual of Diet in Health and Disease_. +1876, p. 162. + + + + +PROFESSOR THOMAS R. FRASER, EDINBURGH. + + +"The stimulating action on the brain of quantities far short of +intoxicating, is accompanied with a paralysing action which seems most +rapidly and powerfully to involve the higher faculties. Mental work +may seem to be rendered more easy, but ease is gained at the expense +of quality. The editor of a newspaper will tell you that, if he has +been dining out, he cannot with confidence write a leading article until +he has allowed sufficient time to elapse from the effect of the wine +he has drunk, in moderation, to pass away; and even the novelist, +whose brain-work is in the regions of imagination, will relate a +similar experience.... In a person accustomed to the use of tobacco +the intellectual work is difficult when smoking cannot be indulged in, +the mind cannot easily be concentrated on a subject, and unrest is +produced--but this disappears when recourse is had to smoking; and +probably some of its reputation as a soothing agent has on this +account been acquired. The circulation is also a little excited, and +no doubt this assists in rendering brain work more easy. In a short +time, however, the circulation is slightly depressed, the pulse +becoming smaller; and this may assist in producing the soothing effect +generally experienced." + +_The Use and Abuse of Alcoholic Stimulants and Tobacco_. +1881 + + + + +HUBERT HERKOMER, A. R. A. + + +"It is no credit to me for being an abstainer. The credit is due to +my father, who gave up smoking, drinking, intoxicating drinks, and +eating meat at the same time, about twenty years ago; and as I was +only ten years old then, I naturally grew into my father's habits (I +now eat meat, however). The blessings of that reform have come down +upon my children." + +Sherlock's _Heroes in the Strife_. + + + + +COLONEL THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON. + + +"I have been a busy worker with the brain all my life, and have +enjoyed very unusual health. I am now fifty-three, and have not been +confined to the house by illness since I was seventeen, except for a +short time during the war, when suffering from the results of a wound. +This favourable result I attribute to (1) a good constitution--and an +elastic temperament; (2) simple tastes, disinclining me to stimulants +and narcotics, such as tea, coffee, wine, spirits, and tobacco; (3) a +love of athletic exercises; (4) a life-long habit of writing by +daylight only; (5) the use of homoeopathic medicines in the early +stages of slight ailments. I have never been a special devotee of +health, I think, but have followed out my natural tastes; and have +certainly enjoyed physical life very much. It may be well to add that, +though, as I said, my constitution was good and my frame always large, +I had yet an unusual number of children's diseases, and have often +been told that my life was several times preserved, in infancy, +against all expectation, by the unwearied care and devotion of my +mother. This may encourage some anxious parents." + +Nov. 11, 1877. +_Hygiene of the Brain_, N.Y., 1878. + + + + +WILLIAM HOWITT. + + +I have read with very great pleasure the letter of Mr. Bryant.... Let +me observe that while the modes of my own life and those of Mr. Bryant +very much accord, in a few particulars they differ, as, I suppose, +must be the case in almost any two individuals. Mr. Bryant never takes +coffee or tea. I regularly take both, find the greatest refreshment in +both, and never experienced any deleterious effects from either, +except in one instance, when, by mistake, I took a cup of tea strong +enough for ten men. On the contrary, tea is to me a wonderful +refresher and reviver. After long-continued exertion, as in the great +pedestrian journeys that I formerly made, tea would always, in a +manner almost miraculous, banish all my fatigue, and diffuse through +my whole frame comfort and exhilaration, without any subsequent evil +effect. + +I am quite well aware that this is not the experience of many others, +my wife among the number, on whose nervous system tea acts +mischievously, producing inordinate wakefulness, and its continued +use, indigestion. But this is one of the things that people should +learn, and act upon, namely, to take such things as suit them, and +avoid such as do not. It is said that Mithridates could live and +flourish on poisons, and if it be true that tea or coffee is a poison, +so do most of us. William Hutton, the shrewd and humorous author of +the histories of Birmingham and Derby, and also of a life of himself, +scarcely inferior to that of Franklin in lessons of life-wisdom, said +that he had been told that coffee was a slow poison, and, he added, +that he had found it very slow, for he had drunk it more than sixty +years without any ill effect My experience of it has been the same. + +Mr. Bryant also has recourse to the use of dumb-bells, and other +gymnastic appliances. For my part, I find no artificial practices +necessary for the maintenance of health and a vigorous circulation of +the blood. My only gymnastics have been those of Nature--walking, +riding, working in field and garden, bathing, swimming, etc. In some +of those practices, or in the amount of their use, Nature, in my later +years, has dictated an abatement. In Mr. Bryant's abhorrence of +tobacco, I fully sympathize. That is a poisoner, a stupefier, a +traitor to the nervous system, and, consequently, to energy and the +spirit of enterprise, which I renounced once and for ever before I +reached my twentieth year. The main causes of the vigor of my +constitution and the retention of sound health, comfort, and activity +to within three years of eighty, I shall point out as I proceed. First +and foremost, it was my good fortune to derive my existence from +parents descended on both sides from a vigorous stock, and of great +longevity. I remember my great-grandmother, an old lady of nearly +ninety; my grandmother of nearly as great an age. My mother lived to +eighty-five, and my father to the same age. They were both of them +temperate in their habits, living a fresh and healthy country life, +and in enjoyment of that tranquillity of mind which is conferred by a +spirit of genuine piety, and which confers, in return, health and +strength. + +The great destroyers of life are not labor and exertion, either +physical or intellectual, but care, misery, crime, and dissipation. My +wife derived from her parentage similar advantages, and all the habits +of our lives, both before and since our marriage, have been of a +similar character. My boyhood and youth were, for the most part, spent +in the country; and all country objects, sports, and labors, +horse-racing and hunting excepted, have had a never-failing charm for +me. As a boy, I ranged the country far and wide in curious quest and +study of all the wild creatures of the woods and fields, in great +delight in birds and their nests, climbing the loftiest trees, rocks +and buildings in pursuit of them. In fact, the life described in the +"Boy's Country Book," was my own life. No hours were too early for me, +and in the bright, sunny fields in the early mornings, amid dews and +odour of flowers, I breathed that pure air which gave a life-long tone +to my lungs that I still reap the benefit of. All those daily habits +of climbing, running, and working developed my frame to perfection, +and gave a vigor to nerve and muscle that have stood well the wear and +tear of existence. My brain was not dwarfed by excessive study in +early boyhood, as is too much the case with children of to-day. Nature +says, as plainly as she can speak, that the infancy of all creatures +is sacred to play, to physical action, and the joyousness of mind that +give life to every organ of the system. Lambs, kittens, kids, foals, +even young pigs and donkeys, all teach the great lesson of Nature, +that to have a body healthy and strong, the prompt and efficient +vehicle of the mind, we must not infringe on her ordinations by our +study and cramping sedentariness in life's tender years. We must not +throw away or misappropriate her forces destined to the corporeal +architecture of man, by tasks that belong properly to an after-time. +There is no mistake so fatal to the proper development of man and +woman, as to pile on the immature brain, and on the yet unfinished +fabric of the human body, a weight of premature and, therefore, +unnatural study. In most of those cases where Nature has intended to +produce a first-class intellect, she has guarded her embryo genius by +a stubborn slowness of development. Moderate study and plenty of play +and exercise in early youth are the true requisites for a noble growth +of intellectual powers in man, and for its continuance to old age. + +My youth, as my boyhood, was spent in the country, and in the active +exercise of its sports and labors. I was fond of shooting, fishing, +riding, and walking, often making long expeditions on foot for +botanical or other purposes. Bathing and swimming I continued each +year till the frost was in the ground and the ice fringed the banks of +the river. As my father farmed his own land, I delighted in all the +occupations of the field, mowing and reaping with the men through the +harvest, looking after sheep and lambs, and finding never-ceasing +pleasure in the cultivation of the garden. + +When our literary engagements drew us to London, we carefully avoided +living in the great Babel, but took up our residence in one of its +healthy suburbs, and, on the introduction of railways, removed to what +was actual country. A very little time showed us the exhausting and +unwholesome nature of city life. Late hours, heavy dinners, the +indulgence of what are called jovial hours, and crowded parties, would +soon have sent us whither they have sent so many of our literary +contemporaries, long, long ago. After an evening spent in one of the +crowded parties of London, I have always found myself literally +poisoned. My whole nervous system has been distressed and vitiated. I +have been miserable and incapable the next day of intellectual labor. +Nor is there any mystery about this matter. To pass some four or five +hours in a town, itself badly ventilated, amid a throng of people just +come from dinner, loaded with a medley of viands, and reeking with the +fumes of hot wines--no few of them, probably, of very moral habits, +was simply undergoing a process of asphyxia. The air was speedily +decomposed by so many lungs. Its ozone and oxygen were rapidly +absorbed, and in return the atmosphere was loaded with carbonic acid, +carbon, nitrogen, and other effluvia, from the lungs and pores of the +dense and heated company; this mischievous matter being much increased +from the products of the combustion of numerous lamps, candles, and +gas-jets. + +The same effect was uniformly produced on me by evenings passed in +theatres, or crowded concert or lecture rooms. These facts are now +well understood by those who have studied the causes of health and +disease in modern society; and I am assured by medical men that no +source of consumption is so great as that occasioned by the breathing +of these lethal atmospheres of fashionable parties, fashionable +theatres, and concert and lecture halls; and then returning home at +midnight by an abrupt plunge from their heat into damp and cold. +People have said to me, "Oh! it is merely the effect of the unusual +late hour that you have felt!" But, though nite hours, either in +writing or society, have not been my habit, when circumstances of +literary pressure have compelled me occasionally to work late, I have +never felt any such effects. I could rise the next day a little later, +perfectly refreshed and full of spirit for my work. + +Another cause to which I attribute my extraordinary degree of health, +has been not merely continued country exercise in walking and +gardening, but, now and then, making a clean breach and change of my +location and mode of life. Travel is one of the great invigorators of +the system, both physically and intellectually. When I have found a +morbid condition stealing over me, I have at once started off on a +pedestrian or other journey. The change of place, scene, atmosphere, +of all the objects occupying the daily attention, has at once put to +flight the enemy. It has vanished as by a spell. There is nothing like +a throwing off the harness and giving mind and body a holiday--a treat +to all sorts of new objects. Once, a wretched, nervous feeling grew +upon me; I flung it off by mounting a stage-coach, and then taking a +walk from the Land's End, in Cornwall, to the north of Devon. It was +gone for ever! Another time the "jolly" late dinners and +blithely-circulating decanter, with literary men, that I found it +almost impossible to avoid altogether without cutting very valuable +connections, gave me a dreadful dyspepsia. I became livingly sensible +of the agonies of Prometheus with the daily vulture gnawing at his +vitals. At once I started with all my family for a year's sojourn in +Germany, which, in fact, proved three years. But the fiend had left me +the very first day. The moment I quitted the British shore, the +tormentor quitted me. I suppose he preferred staying behind, where he +was aware of so many promising subjects of his diabolical art. New +diet, new and early hours, and all the novelties of foreign life, made +his approach to me impossible. I have known him no more, during these +now thirty years. + +Eighteen years ago I made the circumnavigation of the globe, going out +to Australia by the Cape of Good Hope, and returning by Cape Horn. +This, including two years of wandering in the woods and wilds of +Australia, evidently gave a new accession of vital stamina to my +frame. It is said that the climate of Australia makes young men old, +and old men young. I do not believe the first part of the proverb, but +I am quite certain that there is a great deal in the second part of +it. During those two years I chiefly lived in a tent, and led a quiet, +free, and pleasant life in the open forests and wild country, +continually shifting our scene as we took the fancy, now encamping in +some valley among the mountains, now by some pleasant lake or river. +In fact, pic-nicing from day to day, and month to month, watching, I +and my two sons, with ever new interest, all the varied life of beast, +bird, and insect, and the equally varied world of trees, shrubs, and +flowers. My mind was lying fallow, as it regarded my usual literary +pursuits, but actually engaged with a thousand things of novel +interest, both among men in the Gold Diggings, and among other +creatures and phenomena around me. In this climate I and my little +party enjoyed, on the whole, excellent health, though we often walked +or worked for days and weeks under a sun frequently, at noon, reaching +from one hundred to one hundred and fifty degrees of Fahrenheit; waded +through rivers breast high, because there were no bridges, and slept +occasionally under the forest trees. There, at nearly sixty years of +age, I dug for gold for weeks together, and my little company +discovered a fine gold field which continues one to this day. These +two years of bush life, with other journeys on the Australian +Continent, and in Tasmania, and the voyages out and back, gave a world +of new vigor that has been serving me ever since. During the last +summer in Switzerland, Mrs. Howitt and myself, at the respective ages +of sixty-eight and seventy-six, climbed mountains of from three to +five thousand feet above the level of the sea, and descended the same +day with more ease than many a young person of the modern school could +do. + +As to our daily mode of life, little need be said. We keep early +hours, prefer to dine at noon, are always employed in "books, or work, +or healthful play;" have no particular rules about eating and +drinking, except the general ones of having simple and good food, and +drinking little wine. We have always been temperance people, but never +pledged, being averse to thraldom of any kind, taking, both in food +and drink, what seemed to do us good. At home, we drink, for the most +part, water, with a glass of wine occasionally. On the Continent, we +take the light wines of the country where we happen to be, with water, +because they suit us; if they did not, we should eschew them. In fact, +our great rule is to use what proves salutary, without regard to any +theories, conceits, or speculations of hygienic economy; and, in our +case, this following of common sense has answered extremely well. + +At the same time it is true that many eminent men, and especially +eminent lawyers, who in their early days worked immensely hard, +studied through many long nights, and caroused, some of them, deeply +through others, yet attained to a good old age, as Lords Eldon, Scott, +Brougham, Campbell, Lyndhurst, and others. To what are we to attribute +this longevity under the circumstances? No doubt to iron constitutions +derived from their parentage, and then to the recuperative effect of +those half-yearly flights into the Egypt of the country, which make an +essential part of English life. To a thorough change of hours, habits, +and atmosphere in these seasons of villeggiatura. To vigorous athletic +country sports and practices, hunting, shooting, fishing, riding, +boating, yachting, traversing moors and mountains after black-cock, +grouse, salmon, trout and deer. To long walks at sea-side resorts, and +to that love of continental travel so strong in both your countrymen +and women, and ours. + +These are the _saving_ causes in the lives of such men. Who knows +how long they would have lived had they not inflicted on themselves, +more or less, the destroying ones. There is an old story among us of +two very old men being brought up on a trial where the evidence of +"the oldest inhabitant" was required. The Judge asked the first who +came up what had been the habits of his life. He replied, "Very +regular, my lord; I have always been sober, and kept good hours." Upon +which the Judge dilated in high terms of praise on the benefit of +regular life. When the second old man appeared, the Judge put the same +question, and received the answer, "Very regular, my lord; I have +never gone to bed sober these forty years." Whereupon his lordship +exclaimed, "Ha! I see how it is. English men, like English oak, wet or +dry, last for ever." + +I am not of his lordship's opinion; but seeing the great longevity of +many of our most eminent lawyers, and some of whom in early life +seemed disposed to live fast rather than long, I am more than ever +confirmed in my opinion of the vitalizing influences of temperance, +good air, and daily activity, which, with the benefits of change and +travel, can so far in after life save those whom no original force of +constitution could have saved from the effects of jollity, or of +gigantic efforts of study in early life. For one' of such hard livers, +or hard brain-workers who have escaped by the periodical resort to +healthful usages, how many thousands have been "cut off in the midst +of their days?" A lady once meeting me in Highgate, where I then +lived, asked me if I could recommend her a good doctor. I told her +that I could recommend her three. She observed that one would be +enough; but I assured her that she would find these three more +economical and efficient than any individual Galen that I could think +of. Their names were, "Temperance, Early Hours, and Daily Exercise." +That they were the only ones that I had employed for years, or meant +to employ. Soon after, a gentleman wrote to me respecting these "Three +Doctors," and put them in print. Anon, they were made the subject of +one of the "Ipswich Tracts;" and on a visit, a few years ago, to the +Continent, I found this tract translated into French, and the +title-page enriched with the name of a French physician, as the +author. So much the better. If the name of the French physician can +recommend "The Three Doctors" to the population of France, I am so +much the more obliged. + +May 20, 1871. +_Hygiene of the Brain_, New York, 1878. + + + + +THE REV. CHARLES KINGSLEY + + +Found great benefit from the use of tobacco, though several times he +tried to give it up. He smoked the poorest tobacco, however, and Mr. +C. Kegan Paul thus describes the care Charles Kingsley took to +minimise the dangers of the habit:-- + +"He would work himself into a white heat over his book, till, too +excited to write more, he would calm himself down by a pipe, pacing +his grass-plot in thought, and in long strides. He was a great smoker, +and tobacco was to him a needful sedative. He always used a long and +clean clay pipe, which lurked in all sorts of unexpected places. But +none was ever smoked which was in any degree foul, and when there was +a vast accumulation of old pipes, they were sent back again to be +rebaked, and returned fresh and new. This gave him a striking simile, +which in 'Alton Locke,' he puts into the mouth of James Crossthwaite, +'Katie here believes in Purgatory, where souls are burnt clean again, +like 'bacca pipes.'" + + + + +HARRIET MARTINEAU. + + +I was deeply impressed by something which an excellent clergyman told +me one day, when there was nobody by to bring mischief on the head of +the narrator. This clergyman knew the literary world of his time so +thoroughly that there was probably no author of any mark then living +in England with whom he was not more or less acquainted. + +It must be remembered that a new generation has now grown up. He told +me that he had reason to believe that there was no author or authoress +who was free from the habit of taking pernicious stimulants, either +strong green tea or strong coffee at night, or wine, or spirits, or +laudanum. + +The amount of opium taken to relieve the wear and tear of authorship +was, he said, greater than most people had any conception of, and all +literary workers took something. + +"Why, I do not," said I; "fresh air and cold water are my stimulants." + +"I believe you," he replied, "but you work in the morning, and there +is much in that!" + +I then remembered, when I had to work a short time at night, a +physician who called on me observed that I must not allow myself to be +exhausted at the end of the day. He would not advise any alcoholic +wines, but any light wines that I liked might do me good. "You have a +cupboard there at your right hand," said he; "keep a bottle of hock +and a wine glass there, and help yourself when you feel you want it." +"No, thank you," said I; "if I took wine it should not be when alone, +nor would I help myself to a glass; I might take a little more and a +little more, till my solitary glass might become a regular tippling +habit; I shall avoid the temptation altogether." Physicians should +consider well before they give such advice to brain-worn workers. +--_Autobiography_. + + + + +PROFESSOR MILLER. + + +"In labour of the head, alcohol stimulates the brain to an increase +of function under the mental power, and so effects a concentrated +cerebral exhaustion, without being able to afford compensating +nutrition or repair. ....There is the same common fallacy here as in +the case of manual labour. The stimulus is felt--to do good. 'I could +not do my work without it.' But at what cost are you doing your work? +Premature and permanent exhaustion of the muscles is bad enough; but +premature and permanent exhaustion of brain is infinitely worse. And +when you come to a point where work must cease or the stimulus be +taken, do not hesitate as to the right alternative. Don't call for +your pate ale, your brandy, or your wine. Shut your book, close your +eyes, and go to sleep: or change your occupation, so as to give a +thorough shift to your brain; and then, after a time, spent, as the +case may be, either in repose or recreation, you will find yourself +fit to resume your former task of thought without loss or +detriment.... Look to the mental workers under alcohol. Take the best +of them. Would not their genius have burned not only with a steadier +and more enduring flame, but also with a less sickly and noxious +vapour to the moral health of all around them, had they been free from +the unnatural and unneeded stimulus? Take Burns, for example. Alcohol +did not make his genius, or even brighten it.... Genius may have its +poetical and imaginative powers stored up into fitful paroxysms by +alcohol, no doubt: the control of will being gone or going, the mind +is left to take ideas as they come, and they may come brilliantly for +a time. But, at best, the man is but a revolving light. At one time a +flash will dazzle you; at another, the darkness is as that of +midnight; the alternating gloom being always longer than the period of +light, and all the more intense by reason of the other's brightness. +While imagination sparkles, reason is depressed. And, therefore, let +the true student eschew the bottle's deceitful aid. He will think all +the harder, all the clearer, and all the longer!" + +_Alcohol: its Place and Power_. 866, p. 122. + + + + +MR. R. A. PROCTOR, F. R. S. + + +"I would venture to add an expression of my own firm conviction that +a life of study is aided by the almost entire avoidance of +stimulants, alcoholic as well as nicotian, I do not say that the +moderate use of such stimulants does harm, only that so far as I can +judge from my own experience it affords no help. I recognise a slight +risk in what Abbe Moigno correctly states--the apparent power of +indefinite work which comes with the almost entire avoidance of +stimulants; but the risk is very slight, for the man must have very +little sense who abuses that power to a dangerous degree. Certainly, +if the loss of the power be evidence of mischief, I would say (still +speaking of my own experience, which may be peculiar to my own +temperament) that the use of stimulants, even in a very moderate +degree, is mischievous. For instance, I repeatedly have put this +point to the test:--I work say from breakfast till one o'clock, when, +if I feel at all hungry, I join my family at lunch; if now at lunch I +eat very lightly, and take a glass of ale or whisky-and-water, I feel +disposed, about a quarter of an hour later, to leave my work, which +has, for the time, become irksome to me; and perhaps a couple of +hours will pass before I care for steady work again: on the other +hand, if I eat as lightly, or perhaps take a heartier lunch, but +drink water only, I sit down as disposed for work after as before the +meal. In point of fact, a very weak glass of whisky-and-water has as +bad an influence on the disposition for work as a meal unwisely heavy +would have. It is the same in the evening. If I take a light supper, +with water only, I can work (and this, perhaps, is bad) comfortably +till twelve or one; but a glass of weak whisky-and-water disposes me +to rest or sleep, or to no heavier mental effort than is involved in +reading a book of fiction or travel. These remarks apply only to +quiet home life, with my relatives or intimate friends at the table. +At larger gatherings it seems (as Herbert Spencer has noted) that not +only a heartier meal, but stimulants in a larger quantity, can be +taken without impairment of mental vivacity, and even with advantage, +up to a point falling far short, however, of what in former times +would have been regarded as the safe limit of moderation. Under those +circumstances, "wine maketh glad the heart of man," and many find the +stimulus it gives pleasant,--perhaps dangerously so, unless the +lesson is soon learned that the point is very soon reached beyond +which mental vivacity is not increased but impaired. + +"I must confess it seems to me that if we are to admit the necessity +or prudence of adopting total abstinence principles, because of the +miseries which have been caused by undue indulgence--if A, B, and C, +who have no desire to make beasts of themselves, are to refrain from +the social glass because X, Y, and Z cannot content themselves till +they have taken half-a-dozen social glasses too many--society has an +additional reason to be angry with the drunkards, and with those +scarcely less pernicious members of the social body who either cannot +keep sober without blue ribbons or pledges, or, having no wish to +drink, want everyone to know it. I admit, of course, if it really is +the case that the healthy-minded must refrain from the innocent use of +such stimulants as suit them, in the interest of the diseased, it may +be very proper and desirable to do so: but only in the same way that +it might be very desirable to avoid in a lunatic asylum the rational +discussion of subjects about which the lunatics were astray. For +steady literary or scientific work, however, and throughout the hours +of work (or near them), it is certain that for most men something very +close to total abstinence from stimulants is the best policy." + +_Knowledge_, July, 29, 1882. + + +"I have recently had rather interesting evidence of the real value of +the use of so-called stimulants. When lecturing daily, and also +travelling long distances, I always adopt a very light diet: tea, dry +toast, and an egg for breakfast; nothing then till six, when I take +tea, dry toast, and a chop; after lecturing I take a biscuit or so +with cheese, and a glass of whisky-and-water, 'cold without.' I tried +this season the effect of omitting the whisky. Result--sleeplessness +till one or two in the morning. No other harm, but weariness during +following day. Taking the whisky-and-water again, after trying this a +night or two, acted as the most perfect sedative." + +_Knowledge_, Dec. 1, 1882. + + + + +DR. B. W. RICHARDSON, F. R. S. + + +"The evidence is all perfect that alcohol gives no potential power to +brain or muscle. During the first stage of its action it may enable a +wearied or a feeble organism to do brisk work for a short time; it may +make the mind briefly brilliant: it may excite muscle to quick action, +but it does nothing substantially, and fills up nothing it has +destroyed, as it leads to destruction. A fire makes a brilliant sight, +but leaves a desolation. It is the same with alcohol.... The true place +of alcohol is clear; it is an agreeable temporary shroud. The savage, +with the mansions of his soul unfurnished, buries his restless energy +under its shadow. The civilised man, overburdened with mental labour, +or with engrossing care, seeks the same shade; but it is shade, after +all, in which in exact proportion as he seeks it, the seeker retires +from perfect natural life. To search for force in alcohol is, to my +mind, equivalent to the act of seeking for the sun in subterranean +gloom until all is night.... In respect to the influence of smoking +on the mental faculties, there need, I believe, be no obscurity. When +mental labour is being commenced, indulgence in a pipe produces in +most persons a heavy, dull condition, which impairs the processes of +digestion and assimilation, and suspends more or less that motion of +the tissues which constitutes vital activity. But if mental labour be +continued for a long time, until exhaustion be felt, then the resort +to a pipe gives to some _habitues_ a feeling of relief; it +soothes, it is said, and gives new impetus to thought. This is the +practical experience of almost all smokers, but few men become so +habituated to the pipe as to commence well a day of physical or mental +work on tobacco. Many try, but it almost invariably obtains that they +go through their labours with much less alacrity than other men who +are not so addicted. The majority of smokers feel that after a hard +day's labour, a pipe, supposing always that the indulgence of it is +moderately carried out, produces temporary relief from exhaustion." + +_Diseases of Modern Life_. + + +"I gave up that which I thought warmed and helped me, and I can +declare, after considering the whole period in which I have subjected +myself to this ordeal, I never did more work; I never did more varied +work; I never did work with so much facility; I never did work with +such a complete sense of freedom from anxiety and worry, as I have +done during the period that I have abstained altogether." + +Speech at Exeter Hall, Feb. 7, 1877. + + + + +MR. GEORGE AUGUSTUS SALA. + + +"As to smoking stupefying a man's faculties or blunting his energy, +that allegation I take to be mainly nonsense. The greatest workers and +thinkers of modern times have been inveterate smokers. At the same +time, it is idle to deny that smoking to excess weakens the eyesight, +impairs the digestion, plays havoc with the nerves, and interferes +with the action of the heart. I have been a constant smoker for nearly +forty years; but had I my life to live over again I would never touch +tobacco in any shape or form. It is to the man who sits all day long +at a desk, poring over books and scribbling 'copy,' that smoking is +deleterious." + +_Illustrated London News_, Sep. 30, 1882. + + + + +BISHOP TEMPLE. + + +"I can testify that since I have given up intoxicating liquors I have +felt less weariness in what I have to do. I have been busy ever since +I was a little boy, and I therefore know how much I can undertake, and +I certainly can testify that since I gave up intoxicating liquors-- +although I did not like the giving them up, inasmuch as I rather +enjoyed them, when I used them, and inasmuch as I never felt the +slightest intention to exceed, nor am I at all among those who cannot +take one glass, and only one, but must go on to another--I have +certainly found that I am very much the better for it. Whatever +arguments I may hear about it, it is impossible for me to escape from +the memory of the fact that I have found myself very much better able +to work, to write, to read, to speak, and to do whatever I may have to +do, ever since I abstained totally and entirely from all intoxicating +liquor." + +Speech at Torquay, Sept 10, 1882. + + + + +SIR HENRY THOMPSON, F. R. C. S., +SURGEON-EXTRAORDINARY TO THE KING OF THE BELGIANS. + + +"I will tell you who can't take alcohol, and that is very important +in the present day. Of all the people I know who cannot stand +alcohol, it is the brain-workers; and you know it is the brain-workers +that are increasing in number, and that the people who do not use +their brains are going down, and that is a noteworthy incident in +relation to the future. I find that the men who live indoors, who have +sedentary habits, who work their nervous systems, and who get +irritable tempers, as such people always do, unless they take a large +balance of exercise to keep them right (which they rarely do), I say +that persons who are living in these fast days get nervous systems +more excitable and more irritable than their forefathers, and they +cannot bear alcohol so well." + +Speech at Exeter Hall, Feb. 7, 1877. + + + + +MR. W. MATTIEU WILLIAMS, F. R. A. S., F. C. S. + + +"I have just read your quotations from the Abbe Moigno, and your own +comments thereon. I have tried experiments very similar to those you +describe, with exactly the same results; in fact, so far as +intellectual work is concerned, I might describe my own experience by +direct plagiarism of your words. + +Besides these, I have tried other experiments which may be interesting +to those who, without any partizan fanaticism, are seeking for +practical guidance on this subject. + +As many of your readers may know, I have been (when of smaller girth) +an energetic pedestrian, have walked over a large part of England, +Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, crossed France twice on foot, done +Switzerland and the Tyrol pretty exhaustively; in one walk from Paris +taking in on the way the popular lions of the Alps, and then +proceeding, via, Milan and Genoa, to Florence, Rome, Naples, and +Calabria, then from Messina to Syracuse, and on to the East. All this, +excepting the East, on foot. At another time from Venice to Milan, +besides a multitude of minor tours, and my well-known walk through +Norway. + +In the course of these, my usual average rate, when in fair training, +was 200 miles per week. The alcohol experiments consisted in doing a +fortnight at this rate on water, scrupulously abstaining from any +alcoholic drink whatever, and then a fortnight using the beverages of +the country in ordinary moderate quantity. I have thus used British +ales and porter, Bavarian beer, French wines, Italian wines, Hungarian +wine in the Tyrol, Christiania ol, &c., according to circumstances, +and the result has been the same, 'or with very little variation. With +the stimulant I have, of course, obtained a temporary exhilaration +that was pleasant enough while it lasted, but after the first week I +found myself dragging through the last few miles, and quite able to +appreciate the common habit of halting at a roadside "pub." or +wine-shop, for a drink on the way. No such inclination came upon me +when my only beverage was water, or water plus a cup of coffee for +breakfast _only_ (no afternoon tea). Then I came in fresh, +usually finishing at the best pace of the day, enjoying the brisk +exercise in cool evening air. Physical work of this kind admits of +accurate measurement, and I was careful to equalise the average of +these experimental comparative fortnights. + +The result is a firm conviction that the only beverage for obtaining +the maximum work out of any piece of human machinery is water, as pure +as possible; that all other beverages (including even tea and coffee), +ginger-beer, and all such concoctions as the so-called "temperance +drinks," are prejudicial to anybody not under medical treatment. To a +sound-bodied man there is no danger in drinking any quantity of cold +water in the hottest weather, provided _it is swallowed slowly_. +I have drunk as much as a dozen quarts in the course of a stiff +mountain climb when perspiring profusely, and never suffered the +slightest inconvenience, but, on the contrary, have found that the +perspiration promoted by frequent and copious libations at the +mountain streams enabled me to vigorously enjoy the roasting beat of +sun-rays striking so freely and fiercely as they do through the thin +air on the southward slopes of a high mountain. + +I am not a teetotaler, and enjoy a glass of light wine, but always +take it as I sucked lollypops when a child, not because "it is good +for my complaint," or any such humbug, but simply because I am so low +in the scale of creation, as imperfect, as far from angelic, as to be +capable of occasionally enjoying a certain amount of purely sensual +indulgence, and of doing so from nothing higher than purely sensual +motives. + +If all would admit this, and freely confess that their drinking or +smoking, however moderate, is simply a folly or a vice, they would be +far less liable to go to excess than when they befool themselves by +inventing excuses that cover their weaknesses with a flimsy disguise +of medicinal necessity, or other pretended advantage. In all such +cases the physical mischief of the alcohol is supplemented by the +moral corruption of habitual hypocrisy." + +_Knowledge_, August 18, 1882. + + + + +DR. BURNEY YEO, M. D. + + +"With regard to the effect of moderate doses of alcohol on mental +work much difference of opinion exists. Many students find that, +instead of helping them in their work, it hinders them. It dulls +their receptive faculties. Others, on the contrary, find real help in +moderate quantities of wine. These differences of effect would seem +to depend greatly on differences in constitutional temperament. It is +certainly capable, for a time, of calling some of the mental +faculties into increased activity. Some of the best things that have +ever been said have been said under the influence of wine. The +circulation through the brain is quickened, the nervous tissue +receives more nourishment, the imagination is stimulated, and ideas +flow more rapidly, but it is doubtful if the power of close reasoning +be not always diminished. It is useful for reviving mental power, +when from accidental circumstances, such as want of food, &c., it has +been exhausted, but it should never be relied upon as an aid to +continuous effort or close application." + +_Fortnightly Review_. Vol. 21, p. 547. + + + + +CONCLUSION. + + +From a review of the 124 testimonies, including those which appear in +the Appendix, I find that 25 use wine at dinner only; 30 are +abstainers from all alcoholic liquors; 24 use tobacco, out of which +only 12 smoke whilst at work; one chews and one took snuff. Not one +resorts to alcohol for stimulus to thinking, and only two or three +defend its use under special circumstances--"useful at a pinch," under +"physical or mental exhaustion." "Not one resorts to alcohol" for +inspiration. This is an important discovery, and indicates the +existence of more enlightened views in reference to the value of +alcohol, since Burns sang the praise of whisky:--"It kindles wit and +weakens fear." That some literary men still "support" themselves by +alcoholic stimulants, is no doubt true; and, if M. Taine is not +mistaken, some of the leader writers of the London papers can write +their articles only by the aid of a bottle of champagne. When the +creative faculty flags, or the attention wanders, a writer, who is +working against time, is strongly tempted to fly to stimulants for +aid. + +But leader writing, or any other kind of writing, done under the +influence of any kind of stimulants, is, remarks Blackie, unhealthy +work, and tends to no good. "It may safely be affirmed," thinks the +editor of the _Contemporary Review,_ "that no purely conscientious +writing was ever produced under stimulation from alcohol. Harriet +Martineau was one of those workers who could not write a paragraph without +asking herself, 'Is that wholly true? Is it a good thing to say it? Shall +I lead anyone astray by it? Had I better soften it down, or keep it back? +Is it as well as I can say it?' Writing like that of Wilson's 'Noctes,' or +Hoffman's madder stories, may be produced under the influence of wine, +but 'stuff of the conscience', not." The workman himself is injured, as +well as the quality of his work lessened. Mr. Hamerton says he has seen +terrible results from the use of stimulants at work; and anyone who has +read literary history, or who has had any experience of literary life in +London, knows that the rock upon which many men split is--drink. +Whatever journalists may gain from alcohol, other writers who have +tried it say nothing in its favour. Mr. Howells does not take wine at +all, because it weakens his work and his working force. To Mark Twain +wine is a clog to the pen, not an inspiration. "I have," he says, +"never seen the time when I could write to my satisfaction after +drinking even one glass of wine." Dr. Bain finds abstinence from +alcohol and the tea group essential to intellectual effort. They +induce, he says, a false excitement, not compatible with severe +application to problems of difficulty; and the experience of other +workers, whether literary or scientific, is precisely similar. But the +use of alcoholic stimulants at work is one thing; at dinner, another. +The former practice is absolutely injurious; and the highest medical +authorities have pronounced against the latter. Some of the most +vigorous thinkers and laborious workers, however, find that wine aids +digestion and conduces to their power of work. To Mr. Gladstone it is +"especially necessary at the time of greatest intellectual exertion." +As a rule, it is taken at the end of the day, when work is over; but +when he resumes literary composition the quality of a writer's work +seems deteriorated. One of the most esteemed novelists of the present +day informs Dr. Brunton that, although he can take a great deal of +wine without its having any apparent effect on him, yet a single glass +of sherry is enough to take the fine edge off his intellect. He is +able to write easily and fluently in the evening, after taking dinner +and wine, but what he then writes will not bear his own criticism next +morning, although curiously enough it may seem to him excellent at the +time of writing. The perception of the fingers, as well as the +perception of the mind, seems blunted by the use of alcohol. Dr. +Alfred Carpenter relates that a celebrated violin player, as he was +about to go on the platform, was asked if he would take a glass of +wine before he appeared, "Oh, no, thank you," he replied, "I shall +have it when I come off." This answer excited Mr. Carpenter's +curiosity, and he inquired of the violinist why he would have it when +he came off in preference to having it before his work commenced, and +the reply was, "If I take stimulants before I go to work, the +_perception of the fingers is blunted,_ and I don't feel that +nicety and delicacy of touch necessary to bring out the fine tones +requisite in this piece of music, and therefore I avoid them." "But to +touch these things is dangerous, "says Mr. Hubert Bancroft, though +less dangerous to touch them _after_ work than _before_ +work. The most careful man is sometimes thrown off his guard, and +drinks more than his usual allowance. It is, Mr. Watts believes, an +admitted fact that even people who are considered strictly temperate +habitually take more than is good for them. What quantity _is_ +good for every man, no one can say with certainty. So far as wine is +taken to aid digestion, Blackie, who considers that wine "may even be +necessary to stimulate digestion," holds that "healthy _young_ +men can never require such a stimulus." + +A belief exists that men who abstain from alcohol indulge to excess in +some other stimulant. There is some foundation for this belief. +Balzac, for instance, abstained from tobacco, which he declared +injured the body, attacked the intellect, and stupefied the nations; +but he drank great quantities of coffee, which produced the terrible +nervous disease which shortened his life. Goethe was a non-smoker, +but, according to Bayard Taylor, he drank fifty thousand bottles of +wine in his life-time. Niebuhr greatly disliked smoking, but took a +tremendous quantity of snuff. A great number of teetotalers "make up +for their abstinence from alcohol by excessive indulgence in tobacco," +and abuse their more consistent brethren who venture to expostulate +with them. John Stuart Mill "believed that the giving up of wine would +be apt to be followed by taking more food than was necessary, merely +for the sake of stimulation." Sir Theodore Martin, also, thinks the +absence of alcohol likely to lead to increased eating, and to an +extent likely to cause derangement of the body. The power of alcohol +to arrest and preserve decomposition may, it is admitted by temperance +writers, retard to some extent the waste of animal tissue, and +diminish accordingly the appetite for food; but they contend that the +effete matter which has served its purpose and done for the body all +that it can do is retained in the body to its loss and damage. "The +question comes to be," says Professor Miller, "whether shall we take +alcohol, eat less, and be improperly nourished, or take no alcohol, +eat more, and be nourished well? Whether shall we thrive better on a +small quantity of new nutritive material with a great deal of what is +old and mouldy, or on a constant and fresh supply of new material? ... +The most perfect health and strength depend on frequent and complete +disintegration of tissue with a corresponding constant and complete +replacement of the effete parts by the formation of new material." + +"This is not a question which can be settled by reasoning: it must be +decided entirely by experience. No one who has always been in the +habit of using stimulants can be heard on this point, because, having +had no experience of life without alcohol, such a person cannot draw a +comparison between life with and life without that agent." These are +the words of Dr. Buckle, of London, Ontario, and this practical way of +testing the question will commend itself to all. What is the +experience, then, of those who have tried both moderation and total +abstinence? The Rev. Canon Farrar found that "even a single glass of +wine, when engaged in laborious work, was rather injurious than +otherwise." Mr. A. J. Ellis did not find that wine increased his power +of work, and Professor Skeat says the less stimulant he takes the +better. Contrary to medical advice, Dr. Martineau reverted to +abstinence, and for twelve or fifteen years he has been practically a +total abstainer, and, at 77, he retains the power of mental +application. For many years, the Rev. Mark Pattison found great +advantage from giving up wine. Lieutenant-Colonel Butler finds that a +greater amount of _even_ mental work is to be obtained without +the use of alcohol. The belief that alcohol invigorated the body was +held by Mr. Cornelius Walford, but he now finds that it does not do +so, and believes that in sedentary occupations it is positively +injurious even when taken with meals. Professor Skeat has given up +beer with benefit to himself, and has almost given up wine. M. +Barthelemy St. Hilaire has abstained from wine for many years, indeed, +for nearly a life-time, with great advantage. Mr. Hamerton has +abstained for long periods from stimulants, feeling better without +them. + +Mr. Oliver Wendell Holmes's practice approaches nearer to abstinence +as he grows older. The Bishop of Durham finds that, on the whole, he +can work for more consecutive hours, and with greater application, +than when he used stimulants. This, too, is the testimony of Bishop +Temple. The Rev. Stopford Brooke is enthusiastic in his praise of +total abstinence: it has enabled him to work better; it has increased +the pleasure of life; and it has banished depression. Sir Henry +Thompson declares himself better without wine, and better able to +accomplish his work. Dr. Richardson declares that he never did more +work, or more varied work; that he never did work with so much +facility, or with such a complete sense of freedom from anxiety and +worry as he has done during the period he has abstained from alcohol. +On the other hand, Sir Erskine May's experience of abstinence was that +it made him "dyspeptic and stupid;" and Dr. W. B. Carpenter "can get +on best, while in London, by taking with his dinner a couple of +glasses of very light claret, as an aid to digestion." But when on +holiday, he says, he does not need it. A _natural_ stimulant then +takes the place of an artificial one; and so long as a man is healthy, +eating well, and sleeping well, he is, Dr. Brunton declares, better +without alcohol. + +Although there is no comparison between the evils of smoking and those +of drinking, most of the writers seem to attach more importance to the +question of smoking, and some regard the question of alcohol as of no +consequence. Mr. Cornelius Walford considers tobacco a more insidious +stimulant than alcoholic beverages. It can, he points out, be indulged +in constantly without visible degradation; but surely it saps the +mind. Mr. Hyde Clarke is of the same opinion, and remarks, "a man +knows when he is drunk, but he does not know when he has smoked too +much, until the effects of accumulation have made themselves +permanent." There is a growing conviction that tobacco does quite as +much harm to the nervous system as alcohol. [Footnote: There can be no +room to question the presumption that an excessive use of tobacco +_does_ occasionally deteriorate the moral character, as the +inordinate use of chloral or bromide of potassium may deprave the +mind, by lowering the tone of certain of the nervous centres, in +narcotising them and impairing their nutrition. Whether the nicotine +of the tobacco can act on nerve-cells as alcohol acts may be doubtful, +but the victim of excess in the use of tobacco certainly often very +closely resembles the habitual drinker of small drams--the tippler who +seldom becomes actually drunk--and he readily falls into the same +maudlin state as that which seems characteristic of the subject of +slow intoxication by chloral, or of the victim of bromide.--_The +Lancet_, Nov. 12, 1881.] + +The question is often asked, "Does tobacco shorten life?" No evidence +has yet been adduced proving that moderate smoking is injurious, +though Sir Benjamin Brodie believed that, if accurate statistics could +be obtained, it would be found that the value of life in inveterate +smokers is considerably below the average; and the early deaths of +some of the men whose names are so frequently quoted in defence of +smoking, favours the idea that all smoking is injurious. Few literary +men live out their days. It is a matter of general belief that Mr. +Edward Miall weakened his body and shortened his life through his +habit of incessant smoking. "Bayard Taylor," says Mr. James Parton, +"was always laughing at me for the articles which I wrote in the +_Atlantic Monthly_, one called 'Does it pay to smoke?' and the +other, 'Will the Coming Man drink Wine?' I had ventured to answer both +these questions in the negative. He, on the contrary, not only drank +wine in moderation, but smoked freely, and he was accustomed to point +to his fine proportions and rosy cheeks, comparing them with my own +meagre form, as an argument for the use of those stimulants. 'Well,' +he would say, on meeting me, glancing down at his portly person, and +opening wide his arms, with a cigar in his fingers, 'doesn't it pay to +smoke? How does _this_ look? The coming man may do as he likes; +but the man of the present finds it salutary."' Commenting on Mr. +Taylor's early death, Mr. Parton points out that some fifty New York +journalists have either died in their prime or before reaching their +prime. A similar mortality, he notes, has been observed in England. +Dickens died at 58, and Thackeray at 52. A "great number of lesser +lights have been extinguished that promised to burn with +long-increasing brightness." Mr. Parton asks, "Is there anything in +mental labour hostile to life? Was it over-work that shortened the +lives of these valuable and interesting men?" He thinks not, but that +they died before their time because they did not know how to live. +Like Carlyle, William Howitt was scandalised by the tippling habits of +some of the literary men whom he met, and equally scandalised by their +smoking habits. Replying to a correspondent who urged that most +literary men and artists smoke, he said, "No doubt; and that is what +makes the lives of literary men and artists comparatively so short. +May not too much joviality and too much smoking have a good deal to do +with it? I myself, who have not smoked for these seventy years, have +seen nearly the whole generation of my literary contemporaries pass +away. The other day (Dec. 7, 1878), I ascended in the Tyrol, a +mountain of 5,000 feet, inducting a walk of six or seven miles to it, +and as many back, in company with some friends. I did it easily, +and felt no subsequent fatigue. I would like to see an old smoker of +eighty-six do 'that." There can be no doubt that excessive smoking is +one of the causes of the early deaths of literary men, though not the +greatest The opponents of tobacco have tried to make capital out of +the early death of Jules Noriac, who is reported to have died of +smoker's cancer; but it transpired that he lived very irregularly. +[Footnote: Considerable difference of opinion would appear to exist +among the "chroniqueurs" of the Parisian press as to the real nature +of the malady to which M. Jules Noriac, the witty, humorous, and +observant writer of "The Hundred and First Regiment," the essay on +"Human Stupidity," and numerous dramatic pieces of a more or less +ephemeral kind, has just fallen a victim. It has been generally +understood that M. Noriac died from a mysterious malady which has not +long since been recognised by French physicians as the "smoker's +cancer." It is alleged that the deceased man of letters suffered for +two whole years from the ravages of this dreadful and occult disease, +and that his countenance became so transformed through the wasting +action of the ailment that he could scarcely be recognised even by +his most intimate friends. This statement, could it be substantiated, +would serve as a very powerful argument to those who inveigh against +the use of tobacco. Hitherto the fundamental point on which the +opponents of the weed have dwelt is that as the active principle of +tobacco, nicotine, is acknowledged to be in its isolated form a +poison, its introduction into the system in any shape or form must be +injurious, and that it is difficult to point to any human organ which +may not be detrimentally affected by smoking, snuffing, or chewing. +From a cognate point of view, it is worthy of remark that a +contemporary, in a curiously interesting study of the originals of +the characters in the famous "Scenes de la Vie de Boheme," draws +attention to the circumstance that Henri Murger's consumption of +coffee was so excessive as to bring on fever and delirium. Exhaustion +and nervousness followed; and finally he was attacked by an obscure +disorder of the sympathetic nerves which control the veins, at times +turning his whole body to the colour of purple. The doctors who +treated him seem to have known nothing of the ailment, for they dosed +him with sulphur and aconite. He died a horrible--and very painful +death, at the age of thirty-eight. This was in 1860; but only four +years afterwards we find the English physician quoted above, Dr. +Anstie, in his "Stimulants and Narcotics," recognising "a kind of +chronic narcotism, the very existence of which is usually ignored, but +which is, in truth, well marked and easy to identify as produced by +habitual excess in tea and coffee." The common feature of the disease +is muscular tumour; and out of fifty excessive consumers of tea and +coffee whose cases were noted by Dr. Anstie, there were only five +patients who did not exhibit the symptom named. They were suffering, +in fact, from "theine" poisoning. The paralysing effects of narcotic +doses of tea was further displayed by a particularly obstinate kind +of dyspepsia; while the abuse of coffee disordered the action of the +heart to a distressing degree. The friends and biographers of M. +Jules Noriac are unanimous as to the fact that he was inveterate in +the use of tobacco. He was wont to smoke to the butt-end, one after +the other, the huge cigars sold by the French "Regie," and known as +"Imperiales," and a cynic might opine that if the deceased gentleman +had smoked fragrant Havanas in lieu of the abominable stuff vended by +the "Regie" he would not have been afflicted with the "cancer des +fumeurs," nor with any kindred ailment He kept fearfully late hours, +he worked only at night and he smoked "all the time." If towards +morning he felt somewhat faint he would refresh himself with crusts +of bread soaked in cold water, thus imitating to a certain extent our +William Ptynne, who would from time to time momentarily suspend his +interminable scribble to recruit exhausted nature with a moistened +crust; only the verbose author of "Histriomastix" used to dip his +crusts in Strong ale. And the bitter old pamphleteer, for all that +his ears had been cropped and his cheeks branded by the Star Chamber, +lived to be nearly seventy. Jules Noriac was never to be seen abroad +until noon. His breakfast, like that of most Frenchmen, was +inordinately prolonged; and afterwards rehearsals, business +interviews, dinner, and the play would occupy him until nearly +midnight. His delight was to accompany some friend home, and then +walk the friend, arm-in-arm, backwards and forwards in front of his, +the friend's, door, discoursing of things sublunary and otherwise +until two in the morning. Then he would enter his own house and sit +down, pipe in mouth, to the hard labour of literature until six or +seven in the morning. What kind of slumber could a man, leading such +a life as this, be expected to enjoy? On the whole, it would appear +that M. Jules Noriac's habits were diametrically opposed to the +preservation of health and the prolongation of life, and that he died +quite as much from too much Boulevard and too much night work, as +from too much smoking. There are vast numbers of French journalists +and men of letters who, without being necessarily "Bohemians," +consume their health and shorten their lives by this continuous and +feverish race against time. Their days are spent chiefly on the +Boulevards or in the cafes, and it is only at the dead of night that +they devote themselves to serious work. The French "savant," On the +other hand, is rarely seen on the Boulevards. It is by day that he +works, and he spends his evening in some tranquil "salon," and lives, +as a rule, till eighty. The painter, again, must be a day worker, if +he wishes to excel as a colourist. He is but a holiday "flaneur" on +the Boulevards. They are but a part of his life; but of the +"chroniqueur" and the "feuilletonniste" out of the small hours +devoted to fagging at the production of "copy," those Boulevards are +the whole existence.--_Daily Telegraph_, October 9, 1882.] On +the other hand, the advocates of tobacco cite Carlyle as a proof that +tobacco does not shorten life. They credit him with saying that he +could never think of this miraculous blessing without being +overwhelmed by a tenderness for which he could find no adequate +expression. No wonder, therefore, that he called his doctor a +"Jackass," who advised him to give up smoking in order to cure +dyspepsia. In Carlyle's case long life was a doubtful advantage, and +in the matter of smoking he did not practice what he preached. +[Footnote: Describing the German Smoking Congress, he said:--Tobacco, +introduced by the Swedish soldiers in the Thirty-years' War, say some, +or even by the English soldiers in the Bohemian or Palatine beginnings +of said war, say others, tobacco once shown them, was enthusiastically +adopted by the German populations, long in want of such an article, +and has done important multifarious functions in that country ever +since. For truly in politics, morality, and all departments of their +practical and speculative affairs we may trace its influences, good +and bad, to this day. Influences generally bad; pacificatory but bad, +engaging you in idle, cloudy dreams; still worse, promoting composure +among the palpably chaotic and discomposed; soothing all things into +lazy peace; that all things may be left to themselves very much, and +to the laws of gravity and decomposition. Whereby German affairs are +come to be greatly overgrown with funguses in our time, and give +symptoms of dry and of wet rot wherever handled.--_History of +Frederick the Great,_ vol. I, p. 387.] Many cases are known to us, +however, where dyspepsia in smokers has been completely cured by the +abandonment of smoking. + +The most recent case is that of Dr. Richardson, who was a dyspeptic +during the whole time he was a smoker. "At length," he says, "I +resolved to give up smoking. It was hard work to do so, but I +eventually succeeded, and I have never been more thankful than for the +day on which it was accomplished." In Carlyle's case a six months' +abstinence could not drive out his enemy, which he declared was the +cause of nine-tenths of his misery. A more successful illustration of +the "harmlessness" of stimulants is supplied in Mr. Augustus +Mongredien, well-known as an able expositor of the principles of Free +Trade. He is now 75 years of age, and has smoked moderately all his +life, and for the last fifty years has never, except in rare and short +instances of illness, retired to bed without one tumbler of +whiskey-toddy. But this is an exceptional case of longevity. All the +evidence favours the opinion that tobacco, like alcohol, shortens +life. It is certain that abstinence is beneficial, as shown by the +long lives of some of our hardest brain-workers. It is worthy of note, +too, that all the tough old Frenchmen still in the enjoyment of +unimpaired mental faculties never smoked. M. Dufaure, M. Barthelemy +St. Hilaire, Victor Hugo, M. Etienne Arago, brother of the astronomer, +Abbe Moigno, belong to the non-smoking school of public men. So did M. +Thiers, M. Guizot, M. Cremieux, M. Raspail, and the octogenarian, +Comte Benoit-D'Azy, who died in full possession of his mental +faculties. + +Reference has been made to idiosyncrasy, a matter of great importance, +which should be borne in mind when considering the influence of any +habit on the organism, whether animal or human. Professor Christison +cites a remarkable case in which a gentleman unaccustomed to the use +of opium took nearly an ounce of laudanum without any effect. This +form of idiosyncrasy is very rare. Not only are some constitutions +able to bear large doses of poison, but others cannot take certain +kinds of food. Milk, for instance, cannot be taken by one person; pork +by a second; porridge by a third. In the use of the various +stimulants, as in the use of the various foods, the Same difference +prevails among men. "The more I see of life," says Sir Henry Thompson, +"the more I see that we cannot lay down rigid dogmas for everybody;" +and I have come to the same conclusion that it is unsafe to make one +man's experience another man's guide. Kant could work eight hours a +day after drinking a cup of tea and smoking a pipe of tobacco. +Professor Mayor finds that a day or two's fasting does him no harm, +and he thrives on "dry bread and water." Professor Boyd Dawkins finds +quinine the best stimulant; Darwin found a stimulant in snuff; Edison +finds one in chewing; Professor Haeckel finds coffee the best, and Mr. +Francillon and Mark Twain bear testimony to the value of smoking. +These differences point to the conclusion that the same rules cannot +be laid down for all. One thing is clear, however, that our best +writers, clearest thinkers, and greatest scholars do not regard the +use of alcohol as essential to thinking, and very few find tobacco an +aid. With one or two exceptions, the writers take care to minimise the +dangers incurred in the use of stimulants. Though they smoke, they +smoke the weakest tobacco; though they drink, they drink only at +meals. They work in the day time, take plenty of out-door exercise, +and rest when they are tired. Many regard tobacco as a snare and a +delusion; and all regard it as unnecessary for the brain of the +youthful student. The greatest workers and thinkers of the middle +ages, Dr. Russell remarks, never used it; [Footnote: Homer sang his +deathless song, Raphael painted his glorious Madonnas, Luther +preached, Guttenberg printed, Columbus discovered a New World before +tobacco was heard of. No rations of tobacco were served out to the +heroes of Thermopylae, no cigar strung up the nerves of Socrates. +Empires rose and fell, men lived and loved and died during long ages, +without tobacco. History was for the most part written before its +appearance. "It is the solace, the aider, the familiar spirit of the +thinker," cries the apologist; yet Plato the Divine thought without +its aid, Augustine described the glories of God's city, Dante sang his +majestic melancholy song, Savonarola reasoned and died, Alfred ruled +well and wisely without it. Tyrtaeus sang his patriotic song, Roger +Bacon dived deep into Nature's secrets, the wise Stagirite sounded the +depths of human wisdom, equally unaided by it Harmodius and +Aristogeiton twined the myrtle round their swords, and slew the tyrant +of their fatherland, without its inspiration. In a word, kings ruled, +poets sung, artists painted, patriots bled, martyrs suffered, thinkers +reasoned, before it was known or dreamed of.--_Quarterly Journal of +Science_, 1873.] and Mr. Watts thinks that its introduction by +civilised races has been an unmixed evil. It is a remarkable fact that +out of 20 men of science, only two smoke, one of whom, Professor +Huxley, did not commence until he was forty years of age. Even among +those who smoke there is a considerable difference in the times chosen +for smoking. Though the Rev. A. Plummer declares himself a firm +believer in the use of tobacco, he smokes _before_ work, +_after_ work, rarely while at work. Mr. Wilkie Collins smokes +after work, and Mr. James Payn smokes all the time he is working. Mr. +Francillon's consumption of tobacco, and his power of work, are in +almost exact proportion. Similar testimony comes from Mark Twain. +Assuming that the prince of American humorists is not joking, his +experience of cigar-smoking is unique. When Charles Lamb was asked how +he had acquired the art of smoking, he answered, "By toiling after it +as some men toil after virtue." I hope that young smokers will not +conclude that by following the example of Mark Twain, their brain will +become as fertile as his. To them tobacco is bad in any form. It +poisons their blood, stunts their growth, weakens the mind, and makes +them lazy. "It is not easy," says Mr. Ruskin, "to estimate the +demoralizing effect of the cigar on the youth of Europe in enabling +them to pass their time happily in idleness." It has been forbidden at +Annapolis, the Naval School, and at West Point, the Military Academy +of the United States, having been found injurious to the health, +discipline, and power of study of the students. "At Harvard College," +says Dr. Dio Lewis, "no young man addicted to the use of tobacco has +graduated at the head of his class;" and at the lycees of Douai, Saint +Quentin, and Chambery it has been found that the smokers are inferior +to non-smokers. No public enquiry has yet been made as to the +influence of tobacco upon English youths, but I am assured by several +leading schoolmasters that the smokers are invariably the worst +scholars. It cannot be too widely known, therefore, that tobacco, like +alcohol, is of no advantage to a healthy student, and I advise young +men to avoid it altogether. Darwin regretted that he had acquired the +habit of snuff taking, and Mr. Sala says that had he his life to live +over again, he would never touch tobacco in any shape or form. Never +begun, never needed. "I do not advise you, young man," says Oliver +Wendell Holmes, "to consecrate the flower of your life to painting +the bowl of a pipe, for, let me assure you, the stain of a +reverie-breeding narcotic may strike deeper than you think. I have +seen the green leaf of early promise grown brown before its time under +such nicotian regimen, and thought the amber'd meerschaum was dearly +bought at the cost of a brain enfeebled and a will enslaved." + +My conclusions, then, are as follows:-- + +1.--Alcohol and tobacco are no value to a healthy student. + +2.--That the most vigorous thinkers and hardest workers abstain from +both stimulants. + +3.--That those who have tried both moderation and total abstinence +find the latter the more healthful practice. + +4.--That almost every brain-worker would be the better for abstinence. + +5.--That the most abstruse calculations may be made, and the most +laborious mental work performed, without artificial stimulus. + +6.--That all work done under the influence of _alcohol_ is +unhealthy work. + +7.--That the only pure brain stimulants are _external_ ones-- +fresh air, cold water; walking, riding, and other out-door exercises. + + + + +INDEX. + + +Abstinence and dyspepsia + + Do. benefits of + +Alcohol dangerous + + Do. a stupefier + + Do. and speech-making + + Do. not a necessity + + Do. hurtful to the liver + + Do. a restorative + + Do. useful under exceptional circumstances + + Do. and digestion + + Do. as a medicine + + Do. and gout + + Do. bad for rheumatism + + Do. as a soother + + Do. as a stimulant to the brain + + Do. necessity of, to aid the subsidence of the brain + + Do. abstinence from, followed by over-eating + + Do. and longevity + +Air, fresh, importance of + +American boys, tobacco forbidden to + +Athletics, love of + +Balzac quoted + +Best time for working + +Brain-work non-natural + +Brain-work and biliousness + +Byron's temperament + +Carlyle, inconsistency of + +Carpenter, Dr. Alfred, quoted + +Chewing as a stimulant + +City life, exhausting and unwholesome nature of + +Cobbett's abstemiousness + +Coffee, a slow poison + + Do. as a stimulant + +College drunkenness + +Conscientious writing + +Country pursuits, value of + +Depression, the remedy for + +Drunkards among literary men + +Dyspepsia, cures for + +Early rising, value of + +Exercise, importance of, to brain-workers + +Eyesight injured by alcohol and tobacco + +French boys, smoking forbidden to + + Do. literature, the cause of the sickly productions in + +Frenchmen, a group of old + +Genius and alcohol + +German smokers + +Goethe quoted + +Gout and alcohol + +Hoffman's stories + +Howard's, John, abstemiousness + +Hugo, Victor, value of fresh air to + +Holmes, Oliver Wendell, quoted + +Idiosyncracy + +Idleness induced by smoking + + Do. do. drinking + +Imagination, the, stimulated by tobacco + +Indigestion and smoking + +Infection, tobacco a protection against + +Johnson, Dr., a glutton + +Journalists, use of alcohol by + +Juvenile smoking, evils of + +Lamb, Charles, quoted + +Leisure, how to gain + +Life, agreeableness of, promoted by the use of alcohol + + Do. do. do. non-use of alcohol + +Literary life in London, dangers of + +Longevity and alcohol + + Do. and tobacco + +Lynch, T. T., quoted + +Manzoni and nervous distraction + +Mill, John Stuart, practice of + +Miall, Edward, an incessant smoker + +Mortality of literary men + +Nervous excitement and composition + +Niebuhr's habits + +Night thoughts + +Night work, value of + +Noriac, Jules, habits of + +Opium, use of, by literary men + +Pain no drawback to mental work + +Parton, James, quoted + +Permissive Bill + +Physicians, advice of, to brain-workers + +Quinine as a stimulant + +Riding, value of + +Rules, impossibility of laying down, for all + +Ruskin, Mr., quoted + +Sleep the best stimulant + +Smoking, first effects of + +Smoking and working + +Smoking and digestion + +Smoking a sedative + + Do. a vile and odious practice + + Do. a cure for excitable nerves + + Do. a disinfectant + + Do. a greater evil than drinking + +Smoke drunk + +Smoking and longevity + +Snuff as a stimulant + +Snuff-taking and the memory + +Speech-making and alcohol + +Stimulants and unhealthy work + + Do. reactionary + + Do. a judicious use of + + Do. a taste for, imparted to children + +Taylor, Bayard, quoted + +Tea, effects of + +Teetotalism, a generator of due disease + +Thackeray, value of alcohol to + +Tobacco, soothing influences of + +Tobacco and exposure + + Do. and nerve + + Do. cost of + + Do. and longevity + + Do. and sleeplessness + + Do. and the memory + +Travelling, benefits of + +Vegetarianism, practice of + +Walking, value of + +Webster, Daniel, value of alcohol to + +Wilson's "Noctes," how produced + +Wordsworth on poetic excitement + +Wesley's abstemiousness + +Working, best time for + +Youths injured by smoking + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Study and Stimulants, by A. 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