Study and Stimulants | Page 3

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,