Chapter 10

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