PAINLESS EARLY RISING
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,- - I should not like it to be thought that the letter of your correspondent, A. W. G. Stephens (on the subject of milk- drinking for health), leaves me with no reply. Unfortunately, .the example he cites, that of the natives of the Persian Gulf, is beyond my ken. if he assures Inc that they never touch stimulants of any kind and yet have difficulty in getting up in the morning, I can only express astonishment that their experience should be so different from my own. I under- stand that natives anywhere are not very energetic in hum- drum pursuits at any time. Perhaps this is the explanation.
I also have heard it said that vitality is at its lowest ebb in the early morning. Whether this is true I don't know. If it should be so, it would support my case. I said that people who drink stimulants —everybody practically—are at their best in the evening and at their worst in the morning when the effect of the stimulants has passed away.
Mr. Stephens' own experience, as he relates it, is not clearly enough detailed to enable me to say much about it. I might just say this, that whereas on milk his vitality ebbed away, mine increased so much that I was alfle to write my " delight- fully provocative article " (his testimonial), and at the age of thirty-eight (rather beyond the fighting age) to win the light- weight boxing championship of the Army camp in which I was then stationed.
I hope that any of your readers who are interested in the question will test the theory for themselves and not rely on another's experience.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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