17 JULY 1915, Page 15

LTO TEE EDITOR OF TIM "SPECTATOR: "] SIR,--Many years ago I

was in a Northern Country house in which Herbert Spencer was staying. At that time he suffered from sleeplessness, and one night on going to bed he said to me : " I am about to drink some hot brandy and water in order to restore the periodicity of my somniferous functions" —a Spencerian expression for a stiff nightcap to induce sleep.