29 AUGUST 1981, Page 16

Adrenelan

Sir: According to Duncan Fallowell (8 August): `De Quincey . . . found the abrasion of acute poverty essential to that flow of adrenalin necessary, in the absence of a private income, to the building of a life.' But adrenalin is a real substance, a product of adrenal glands, of known composition and physiological actions. A private income is not one of its antagonists. Metaphorical adrenalin flows in print so often nowadays that we seem to need a new word to express l'elan vital. Adrenelan?

Philip Evans 24 Abbey Road, London NW8