" STUDY AND STIMULANTS."

WHAT is the real influence of stimulants and narcotics upon the brain P This is a question which has sug- gested itself to every man who has had much intellectual work to do, and especially to that large class of persons who earn a living by the exercise of their brains, instead of by the sweat of their brow. Theoretical discussions of it we have had in abund- ance, indeed in superabundance, and the effect of them has only been, for the most part, to prompt the resigned inquiry,—Who shall decide, when doctors disagree ? Mr. A. Arthur Reade, however, in a book bearing the above title, has raised this ques- tion again, to apply to it a new method of solution, certainly far more entertaining than the old one, whatever its ultimate value may prove to be. He has changed the venue, as the lawyers would say, from the theoretical to the practical realm, and instead of asking what is the real influence of alcohol and tobacco upon the brain, be asks what has been the experience of those engaged in intellectual work. And in pursuance of his method, he has addressed inquiries to a large number of distinguished men of letters, includ- ing statesmen, essayists, novelists, journalists, and inventors, and their replies constitute the present volume. Mr. Reade deserves great credit for the felicitous and insinuating manner in which he must have framed his inquiries, to wheedle this irritabite genus into such interesting replies, for he fur- nishes us with two hundred pages of reading matter possessing that element of personal interest which the most scrupulous of us enjoy, without arousing any of those qualms of conscience which haunt us during the perusal of the indiscretions of literary executors, or the familiar and sometimes libellous gossip of the Society journals. In spite of our just denunciation of the modern "interviewer," we feel more than an abstract interest in reading of Mr. Boehm's vigorous daily regimen, or in learning that Mark Twain finds three hundred cigars a month sufficient to keep his constitution upon a firm basis. Of course, the excessive use of either alcohol or tobacco is beyond the range of this discussion ; " excessive " means harmful, and it is absurd to ask if that which is harmful is beneficial; we are concerned with the inquiry whether the proper use of them leads to the production of more and better work.

As we have said, one learned theoretical argument may generally be set-off against another, with the corollary that the majority of doctors smoke and take wine, so that we are not 'surprised, on opening Mr. Reade's book, to come upon several flat contradictions. Mr. Allibone leads off with the • opinion that the chief benefit of smoking is that it keeps its devotee quiet for an how after dinner, " which is a great thing for digestion." He may be paired with Mr. Ruskin, who bases his dislike of it mainly upon the belief that it makes a man content to be idle,when he would otherwise be at work. Again, Mr. Robert Buchanan believes that, physiologically speaking, both alcohol and tobacco are invaluable to humankind ; while Mr. G. F.

Watts cannot help thinking that the introduction of tobacco by civilised races has been an unmixed evil. Professor Rawlin- son begins his letter by saying that it does not appear to him that the method of the present inquiry can lead to any im- portant results ; while Mr. Charles Reade, in the next letter, writes :—" Your subject is important, and your method of inquiry sound." We care comparatively little, however, what most of these gentlemen think on the subject, our interest lies in learning what they do ; actions speak louder than words, and many of Mr. Reade's correspondents entirely miss the point when favouring him with their own ideas on the subject. Dr. J. A. H. Murray, for instance, begs the question when he says :—" 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 Fiat experiineninm in cmyore viliore." This " generally admitted " may be ranked with "every schoolboy knows "; the object of the present investiga- tion is to find whether alcohol and tobacco, properly used, do muddle a man. The book abounds, however, in interesting bits of autobiography.

The letters are given in alphabetical order, an arrangement which brings Mr. Matthew Arnold's characteristic letter to the front. He has always drunk wine, chiefly claret, and has never smoked. He writes :—" 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. Bat, in general, wine used in moderation seems to add to the agreeablenes8 of life,— for adults, at any rate ; and whatever adds to the agreeableness of life adds to its resources and powers." Dr. Alexander Bain informs us that the difficulty which presses upon him 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 maybe proportions not only innocuous, but beneficial." Professor Paul Bert expresses his opinion is four propositions, of which the following is the last :—" The use of alcoholic liquors and of tobacco in feeble doses affords to many persons very great satisfaction, and is altogether harm- less and inoffensive." Mr. Isaac Pitman, in a "breef skech ov mei leif," which looks like Swedish, but is afterwards discovered to be the " parshiali reformd speling,' expresses his "farm kon- viksbon that they ekserseiz a dedli influens on the hiuman rase." Professor Blackie considers smoking "vile and odious ;' Mr. Ruskin " entirely abhors " it ; Mr. G. F. Watts, as we have said, thinks the introduction of it has been an " unmixed evil ;" Dr. Martineau's "intense dislike of it " has restricted his travel- ling to a minimum, and kept him from all public places where he was "liable to encounter its sickening effects;" Mr. Cornelius Walford believes it to be " a more insidious stimulant than alcoholic beverages ;" Mr. Gladstone " detests " it ; and Professor Mayor computes that he must have saved some £1,500 by abstaining from it. Surely, Byron's " Sublime tobacco ! which from East to West Cheers the tar's labor, and the Turkman's rest," has not often been subjected to such a severe indictment, and if many of the readers of this volume are like that ingenuous Member of Parliament who recently declared that he should be influenced much more strongly by the example of the Princess of Wales in the matter of pigeon-shooting, than by all the argu- ments of the opponents of it, we may expect to bear of an im- mediate and great defection from the ranks of the smokers. Side by side, however, with the above sentiments, the volume contains numerous grateful testimonies to the opposite effect. Mr. Boehm finds that, after a long spell of work, a cigarette is a soother for which he has a " perfect craving ;" Mr. Buchanan smokes " pretty habitually," and, as we have said, believes tobacco to be "invaluable to humankind ;" Mr. Wilkie Collins writes that when he is ill, tobacco is the best friend that his irritable nerves possess ; when he is well, but exhausted by work, tobacco nerves and composes him ; and he maliciously adds : " 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." Mr. Darwin found that "two little paper cigarettes of Turkish tobacco " rested him, after he had "been compelled to talk, with tired memory, more than anything else ;" with Professor Dowden, tobacco "soothes away small worries," and " restores little irritating incidents to their true proportions ;" Mr. R. E. Francillon finds that his consumption of tobacco and his production of work are " in almost exact proportion," and has a very strong suspicion that if he did not smoke (which he finds harmless) he would have to conquer really dangerous temptations ; Mr. G.A. Henty believes "smoking, if not begun until after the age of twenty-one, to be advantageous alike to health, temper, and intellect ;" Mr. James

Payn smokes the whole time he is engaged in literary composition, and says : "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." Dr. W. H. Russell has " felt comforted and sustained " in his work by both alcohol and tobacco, especially by the latter; M. Taine finds cigarettes useful between two ideas,—when he has the first, but has not arrived at the second. Finally, Mr.

Clemens, " Mark Twain," contributes a long and very funny account of his experience. He began to smoke immoderately—

one hundred cigars a month—when he was eight years old. Before he was twenty, he had increased his allowance to two hundred ; before he was thirty, to three hundred. At various times he has abstained for several months, but has quite for- gotten whether the result on each occasion was good or evi'.

Being under a contract to produce " Roughing It," he wrote, without smoking, six chapters in three weeks ; resuming smok- ing, he burned the six chapters, and wrote the book in three months, " without any bother or difficulty." When he takes his annual eight months' holiday, ho finds three hundred cigars a month sufficient to keep his constitution on a firm basis ; when he is at work,—but he must take the responsibility of the next awful statement :—" 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." Our readers must determine for themselves whether he is serious, or whether he is hoaxing Mr. Reade. Thus the smokers need not despair under the indictment we gathered from the volume ; the case for the defence is equally strong, and they may take refuge behind the same .old antinomy :—for every Oliver, there is a Roland.

With regard to the use of wine, there are, of course, many of the correspondents who wholly condemn it. None admit that they resort to it for inspiration, and the majority find that a very moderate quantity—say, a couple of glasses of claret at dinner—is best for them. One or two confess that they take it not from belief in any benefit received from it, but simply because they like it,—because it adds to the agreeableness of life, as Mr. Arnold says. This is probably the true explanation in the vast majority of cases, from the confident " Quid non ebrieta,s designat ?" of Horace, down to the last German student, two-thirds of whose Geschmack consist of eiu starkes Beer, du beizender Tabak.

This leads us to say a word on the literature of the subject.

Here, too, the same antithesis is found. The cup and the weed have been exalted and denounced with equal eloquence and in- sight, except that the former had a long start in literature. What would not Horace have said about a cigar ? The lovers of the weed make up for the late arrival of their favourite by finding classical prophetic references to it ; for instance, to take the first that occurs to us, " Emollit mores, nec sinit esse feros." As we desire to see fair play, we will suggest to the opposite party

that they will find a COD- fortable passage in Martial :— " Me focus, et nigros non indignantia fnmos Teets layout."

Of all the passages, however, in praise or in defence of tobacco, we know of none that comes up to Mr. Lowell's exquisite and characteristic lines :—

" Now the kind nymph to Bacchus born

By Morpheus' daughter, she that seems Gifted upon her natal morn By him with fire, by her with dreams, Nicotia, dearer to the Muse Than all the grape's bewildering juice, We worship, unforbid of thee; And, as her incense floats and curls In airy spires and wayward whirls, Or poises on its tremulous stalk A flower of fairest revery, So winds and loiters, idly free, The current of unguided talk, Now laughter-rippled, and now caught In smooth, dark pools of deeper thought.

Meanwhile thou mellowest every word, A sweetly unobtrusive third-; For thou bast magic beyond wine, To unlock natures each to each ; The unspoken thought thou coast divine; Thou fill'st the pauses of the speech With whispers that to dreamland reach And frozen fancy-springs unchain Sn Arctic outskirts of the brain ; Sun of all inmost confidences, To thy rays doth the heart unclose Its formal calyx of pretences, That close against rude day's offences, And open ite shy midnight rose !"

But what, in conclusion, do we learn from Mr. Reade's new method ? Very little. These interesting confessions cannot possibly combine to form a rule; even if the present writer were to state that within his reach there stands a familiar yellow- and-white jar bearing the inscription " TSlI BAKXS1I," which seems to him happily to combine sentiment and fact, the state- ment would have no value for any one else, either as a guide or as a warning. It is the old story of Suum cuique,—what is one man's meat is another man's poison. We cannot improve much on Captain Fred. Burnaby's humble opinion," that "every man must find out for himself." On the whole, how- ever, the perusal of this volume, with its varying estimates of wine and tobacco, has confirmed us in our opinion that—as Pro- fessor Tyndall puts it in his letter—" the man is happiest who is so organised as to be able to dispense with the use of both."