Study and Stimulants Part 7

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 a.s.sisted or r.e.t.a.r.ded 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 gla.s.s 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 gla.s.s 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 circ.u.mstances, 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.