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Study and Stimulants

A >> A. Arthur Reade >> Study and Stimulants



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STUDY AND STIMULANTS;



OR,


THE USE OF INTOXICANTS AND NARCOTICS IN RELATION TO INTELLECTUAL LIFE,

AS ILLUSTRATED BY PERSONAL COMMUNICATIONS ON THE SUBJECT,
FROM MEN OF LETTERS AND OF SCIENCE.





EDITED BY A. ARTHUR READE.




INTRODUCTION.


The real influence of the intoxicants and narcotics in common use has
been a matter of fierce and prolonged controversy. The most opposite
opinions have been set forth with ability and earnestness; but the
weight they would otherwise carry is lessened by their mutually
contradictor-y character. Notwithstanding the great influence of the
physician's authority, people are perplexed by the blessings and
bannings bestowed upon tobacco and the various forms of alcohol.

What is the real influence of stimulants and narcotics upon the brain?
Do they give increased strength, greater lucidity of mind and more
continuous power? Do they weaken and cloud the intellect, and lessen
that capacity for enduring a prolonged strain of mental exertion which
is one of the first requisites of the intellectual life? Would a man
who is about to enter upon the consideration of problems, the correct
solution of which will demand all the strength and agility of his
mind, be helped or hindered by their use? These are questions which
are asked every day, and especially by the young, who seek in vain for
an adequate reply. The student grappling with the early difficulties
of science and literature, wishes to know whether he will be wiser to
use or to abstain from stimulants.

The theoretical aspect of the question has perhaps been sufficiently
discussed; but there still remains the practical inquiry,--"What has
been the experience of those engaged in intellectual work?" Have men
of science--the inventors, the statesmen, the essayists, and novelists
of our own day--found advantage or the reverse in the use of alcohol
and tobacco?

The problem has for years exercised my thoughts, and with the hope of
arriving at _data_ which would be trustworthy and decisive, I
entered upon an independent inquiry among the representatives of
literature, science, and art, in Europe and America. The replies were
not only numerous, but in most cases covered wider ground than that
originally contemplated. Many of the writers give details of their
habits of work, and thus, in addition to the value of the testimony on
this special topic, the letters throw great light upon the methods of
the intellectual life.

To each writer, and especially to Dr. Alex. Bain, Mr. R. E.
Francillon, Mark Twain, Mr. E. O'Donovan, Mr. J E. Boehm, Professor
Dowden, the Rev. Dr. Martineau, Count Gubernatis, the Abbe Moigno, and
Professor Magnus, who have shown hearty interest in the enquiry, I
tender my best thanks for contributing to the solution of the
important problem of the value of stimulants; also to Mr. W. E. A.
Axon for suggestive and much appreciated help. I should, however, be
glad of further testimonies for use in a second edition.

_January_, 1883.




CONTENTS.


I. Introduction


II. LETTERS FROM:

Abbot, The Rev. Dr.

Allibone, Mr. S. Astin

Argyll, The Duke of, F. R. S.

Arnold, Mr. Matthew

Ayrton, Professor

Bain, Dr. Alexander

Ball, Professor Robert S., LL. D., F. R. S.

Bancroft, Mr. Hubert Howe

Baxendell, Mr. Joseph, F. R. A. S.

Beard, Dr. G. M.

Bert, Professor Paul

Blackie, Professor John Stuart

Blanc, M. Louis

Boehm, Mr. J. E., R. A.

Bredencamp, Dr.

Brown, Mr. Ford Madox, R. A.

Buchanan, Mr. Robert

Buddenseig, Dr.

Burnaby, Captain Fred

Butler, Lieut. Col. W. F.

Burnton, Dr. Lauder, F. R. S.

Camp, Madame du

Carpenter, Dr. W. B., C. B., LL. D., F. R. S.

Chambers, Mr. William, LL. D

Childs, Mr. George W.

Claretie, M. Jules

Clarke, Mr. Hyde, F. S. S.

Collins, Mr. Wilkie

Conway, Mr. Moncure D., M. A.

Dallenger, Rev. W. H., F. R. S

Darwin, Professor

Dawkins, W. Boyd, M. A., F. R. S., F. G. S.

D'Orsey, The Rev. Alex. J. D., B. D.

O'Donovon, Mr. Edmund

Dowden, Professor, LL. D.

Edison, Professor

Ellis, Mr. Alex. J., F. R. S., F. S. A.

Everett, Professor

Fairbairn, Professor R. M.

Francillon, Mr. R. E.

Freeman, Mr. Edward A., D. C. L., LL. D.

Furnivall, Mr. F. J., M. A.

Gardiner, Mr. Samuel R., Hon. LL. D.

Gladstone, Rt. Hon. W. E., M. P.

Greville, Mdlle. II

Gubernatis, Count

Guenin, M. L. P.

Guy, Dr. William

Haeckel, Professor Ernst

Hamerton, Mr. Philip Gilbert

Hardy, Mr. Thomas

Harrison, Mr. Frederic

Henty, Mr. G. A.

Holmes, Mr. Oliver Wendell

Holyoake, Mr. George Jacob

Hooker, Sir J. D., F. R. S.

Howells, Mr. W. D.

Joule, Dr. J. P.

Lansdell, The Rev. Henry

Leathes, Rev. Stanley, D. D.

Lecky, W. E. H.

Lees, Dr. F. R.

Levi, Mr. Leone, F. S. A.

Lubbock, Sir John, Bart. M. P.

Magnus, Professor

Maitland, Mr. Edward, B. A.

Martin, Sir Theodore, K. C. B.

Martineau, The Rev. James, D. D.

Maudsley, Dr. Henry

May, Sir Thomas Erskine, K. C. B., D. C. L.

Mayor, Rev. John E. B., M. A.

Moigno, The Abbe

Morrison, Rev. J., D. D.

Mongredien, Mr. Augustus

Murray, Dr. J. A. H.

Murray, Mr. D. Christie.

Newman, Professor

Pattison, The Rev. Mark, B. D.

Payn, Mr. James

Pitman, Mr. Eizak

Plaute, M. Gaston

Plummer, The Rev. A.

Pocknell, Mr. Edward

Rawlinson, Professor George

Reade, Mr. Charles

Reed, Mr. Thomas Allen

Rodenberg, Dr. Julius

Russell, Dr. W. H.

Ruskin, Mr. John

Sen, Keshub Chunder

Simon, M. Jules

Skeat, Professor

St. Hilaire, M. Barthelemy

Spottiswoode, Mr. W., D. C. L., LL. D.

Siemens, Dr. C. W., D. C. L., F. R. S.

Smith, Mr. G. Barnett

Taine, M.

Trollope, Mr. Anthony

Thomson, Sir William, M. A., LL. D., D. C. L., F. R. S.

Trantmann, Professor

Tyndall, Professor, LL. D., F. R. S.

Tourgueneff, Mr. Ivan

Twain, Mark

Walford, Mr. Cornelius, F. S. S., F. I. A.

Watts, Mr. G. F., R. A.

Wilson, Professor Andrew, Ph. D., F. R. S. E.

Winser, Mr. Justin

Wurtz, M.


III. APPENDIX

TESTIMONIES OF:

Bennett, Dr. Risdon

Brooke, The Rev. Stopford A., M. A.

Bryant, William C.

Chambers, Dr. King

Fraser, Professor Thomas R.

Herkomer, Hubert, A. R. A.

Higginson, Colonel Thomas Wentworth

Howitt, William

Kingsley, The Rev. Charles

Martineau, Harriet

Miller, Professor

Proctor, Mr. R. A., F. R. S.

Richardson, Dr. B. W., F. R. S.

Sala, Mr. George Augustus

Temple, Bishop

Thompson, Sir Henry, F. R. C. S.

Williams, Mr. W. Mattieu, F. R. A. S., F. C. S.

Yeo, Dr. Bumey, M. D.


IV. CONCLUSION




STUDY AND STIMULANTS




THE REV. DR. ABBOT,
EDITOR OF THE "CHRISTIAN UNION," NEW YORK.


I have no experience whatever respecting tobacco: my general opinion
is adverse to its use by a healthy man; but that opinion is not
founded on any personal experience, nor on any scientific knowledge,
as to give it any value for others. My opinion respecting alcohol is
that it is a valuable and necessary ingredient in forming and
preserving some articles of diet--yeast bread, for example, which can
only be produced by fermentation--and that its value in the lighter
wines, those in which it is found in, a ratio of from 5 to 10 per
cent., is of the same character. It preserves for use other elements
in the juice of the grape. As a stimulant, alcohol is, in my opinion,
at once a deadly poison and a valuable medicine, to be ranked with
belladonna, arsenic, prussic acid, and other toxical agents, which can
never be safely dispensed with by the medical faculty, nor safely used
by laymen as a stimulant, except under medical advice. As to my
experience, it is very limited; and, in my judgment, it is quite
unsafe in this matter to make one man's experience another man's
guide: too much depends upon temperamental and constitutional
peculiarities, and upon special conditions of climate and the like.

1. I have no experience respecting distilled spirits; I regard them as
highly dangerous, and have never used them except under medical
advice, and then only in rare and serious cases of illness. 2. Beers
and the lighter wines, if taken before mental work, always--in my
experience--impair the working powers. They do not facilitate, but
impede brain action. 3. After an exceptionally hard day's work, when
the nervous power is exhausted, and the stomach is not able to digest
and assimilate the food which the system needs, a glass of light wine,
taken with the dinner, is a better aid to digestion than any other
medicine that I know. To serve this purpose, its use--in my opinion--
should be exceptional, not habitual: it is a medicine, not a beverage.
4. After nervous excitement in the evening, especially public
speaking, a glass of light beer serves a useful purpose as a sedative,
and ensures at times a good sleep, when without it the night would be
one of imperfect sleep.

I must repeat that my experience is very limited; that in my judgment
the cases which justify a man in so overtaxing his system that he
requires a medicine to enable him to digest his dinner or enjoy his
sleep must be rare; and that my own use of either wine or beer is very
exceptional. Though I am not in strictness of speech a total
abstinence man, I am ordinarily a water drinker.

LYMAN ABBOT.
March 11, 1882.




MR. S. AUSTIN ALLIBONE, NEW YORK.


I have no doubt that the use of alcohol as a rule is very injurious to
all persons--authors included. In about 17 years (1853-1870), in which
I was engaged on the "Dictionary of English Literature and Authors," I
never took it but for medicine, and very seldom. Moderate smoking
after meals I think useful to those who use their brains much; and
this seems to have been the opinion of the majority of the physicians
who took part in the controversy in the _Lancet_ about ten or
twelve years since. An energetic non-smoker is in haste to rush to his
work soon after dinner. A smoker is willing to rest (it should be for
an hour), because he can enjoy his cigar, and his conscience is
satisfied, which is a great thing for digestion; the brain is soothed
also.

S. AUSTIN ALLIBONE.
March 27, 1882.




THE DUKE OF ARGYLL, F. R. S.


In answer to your question, I can only say that during by far the
greatest part of my life I never took alcohol in any form; and that
only in recent years I have taken a small fixed quantity under medical
advice, as a preventive of gout. Tobacco I have never touched.

ARGYLL.
October 2, 1882.




MR. MATTHEW ARNOLD.


In reply to your enquiry, I have to inform you that I have never
smoked, and have always drunk wine, chiefly claret. As to the use of
wine, I can only speak for myself. Of course, there is the danger of
excess; but a healthy nature and the power of self-control being
presupposed, one can hardly do better, I should think, than "follow
nature" as to what one drinks, and its times and quantity. As a
general rule, I drink water in the middle of the day; and a glass or
two of sherry, and some light claret, mixed with water, at a late
dinner; and this seems to suit me very well. I have given up beer in
the middle of the day, not because I experienced that it did not suit
me, but because the doctor assured me that it was bad for rheumatism,
from which I sometimes suffer. I suppose most young people could do as
much without wine as with it. 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. But, in general, wine used in
moderation seems to add to the _agreeableness_ of life--for
adults, at any rate; and whatever adds to the agreeableness of life
adds to its resources and powers.

MATTHEW ARNOLD.
November 4, 1882.




PROFESSOR AYRTON


Has no very definite opinions as to the effects of tobacco and alcohol
upon the mind and health, but as he is not in the habit of either
taking alcohol or of smoking, he cannot regard those habits as
essential to mental exertion.

April 21, 1882.




DR. ALEXANDER BAIN,
LORD RECTOR OF ABERDEEN UNIVERSITY.


I am interested in the fact that anyone is engaged in a thorough
investigation of the action of stimulants. Although the subject falls
under my own studies in some degree, I am a very indifferent testimony
as far as concerns personal experience. On the action of tobacco, I am
disqualified to speak, from never having used it. As to the other
stimulants--alcohol and the tea group--I find abstinence essential to
intellectual effort. They induce a false excitement, not compatible
with severe application to problems of difficulty. They come in well
enough at the end of the day as soothing, or cheering, and also as
diverting the thoughts into other channels. In my early intercourse
with my friend; Dr. Carpenter, when he was a strict teetotaler, he
used to discredit the effect of alcohol in soothing the excitement of
prolonged intellectual work. I have always considered, however, that
there is something in it. Excess of tea I have good reason to
deprecate; I take it only once a day. The difficulty that presses upon
me on the whole subject 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 may be proportions
not only innocuous, but beneficial; reasoning from the analogy of the
action of many drugs which present the greatest opposition of effect
in different quantities. I mean this--not with reference to the
inutility for intellectual stimulation, in which I have a pretty clear
opinion as regards myself--but as to the harmlessness in the long run,
of the employment of stimulants for solace and pleasure when kept to
what we call moderation. A friend of mine heard Thackeray say that he
got some of his best thoughts when driving home from dining out, with
his skin full of wine. That a man might get chance suggestions by the
nervous excitement, I have no doubt; I speak of the serious work of
composition. John Stuart Mill never used tobacco; I believe he had
always a moderate quantity of wine to dinner. He frequently made the
remark that he believed the giving up of wine would be apt to be
followed by taking more food than was necessary, merely for the sake
of stimulation. Assuming the use of stimulants after work to aid the
subsidence of the brain, I can quite conceive that tobacco may operate
in this way, as often averred; but I should have supposed that any
single stimulant would be enough: as tobacco for those abstaining
entirely from alcohol, and using little tea or coffee.

ALEXANDER BAIN.
March 6, 1882.




PROFESSOR ROBERT S. BALL, LL. D., F. R. S.,
ANDREWS PROFESSOR OF ASTRONOMY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF DUBLIN, AND ROYAL
ASTRONOMER OF IRELAND.


I fear my experience can be of little use to you. I have never smoked
except once--when at school; I then got sick, and have never desired
to smoke since. I have not paid particular attention to the subject,
but I have never seen anything to make me believe that tobacco was of
real use to intellectual workers. I have known of people being injured
by smoking too much, but I never heard of anyone suffering from not
smoking at all.

ROBERT S. BALL.
February 13, 1882.




MR. HUBERT HOWE BANCROFT,
SAN FRANCISCO.


In my opinion, some constitutions are benefited by a moderate use of
tobacco and alcohol; others are not. But to touch these things is
dangerous.

H. H. BANCROFT.
May 6, 1882.




MR. JOSEPH BAXENDELL, F. R. A. S.

I fear that my experience of the results of the use of stimulants will
not aid you much in your enquiry. Although I am not a professed
teetotaler or anti-smoker, practically I may say I am one: and when I
am engaged in literary work, scientific investigations, or long and
complicated calculations, I never think of taking any stimulant to aid
or refresh me, and I doubt whether it would be of any use to do so.

JOSEPH BAXENDELL.
February 20, 1882.




DR. G. M. BEARD,
FELLOW OF THE NEW YORK ACADEMY OF MEDICINE.


In reply to your enquiries, I may say--first: I do not find that
alcohol is so good a stimulant to thought as coffee, tea, opium, or
tobacco. On myself alcohol has rather a benumbing and stupefying
effect, whatever may be the dose employed; whereas, tobacco and opium,
in moderate doses, tea, and especially coffee, as well as cocoa, have
an effect precisely the reverse.

Secondly: there are many persons on whom alcohol in large or small
doses has a stimulating effect on thought: they can speak and think
better under its influence. The late Daniel Webster was accustomed to
stimulate himself for his great speeches by the use of alcohol.

Thirdly: these stimulants and narcotics, according to the temperament
of the person on whom they are used, have effects precisely opposite,
either sedative or stimulating; while coffee makes some people sleepy,
the majority of persons are made wakeful by it. Some are made very
nervous by tobacco in the form of smoking, while on others it acts as
a sedative, and induces sleep. General Grant once told me 'that, if
disturbed during the night, or worried about anything so that he could
not sleep, he could induce sleep by getting up and smoking a short
time--a few whiffs, as I understood him, being sufficient.

If I were to judge by my own experience alone--which it is not fair to
do--I should say that coffee is the best stimulant for mental work;
next to that tobacco and quinine; but as I grow older, I observe that
alcohol in reasonable doses is beginning to have a stimulating effect.

GEORGE M. BEARD.
March 13, 1882.




PROFESSOR PAUL BERT.


My views on tobacco and alcohol, and their action on the health, may
be summed up in the following four propositions:--

1.--Whole populations have attained to a high degree of civilization
and prosperity without having known either tobacco or alcohol,
therefore, these substances are neither necessary nor even useful to
individuals as well as races.

2.--Very considerable quantities of these drugs, taken at a single
dose, may cause death; smaller quantities stupefy, or kill more
slowly. They are, therefore, poisons against which we must be on our
guard.

3.--On the other hand, there are innumerable persons who drink
alcoholic beverages, and smoke tobacco, without any detriment to their
reason or their health. There is, therefore, no reason to forbid the
use of these substances, while suitably regulating the quantity to be
taken.

4.--The use of alcoholic liquors and of tobacco in feeble doses,
affords to many persons very great satisfaction, and is altogether
harmless and inoffensive.

We ought, therefore, to attach no stigma to their consumption, after
having pointed out the danger of their abuse. In short, it is with
alcohol and tobacco as with all the pleasures of this life--a question
of degree.

As for myself, I never smoke, because I am not fond of tobacco: I very
seldom drink alcoholic liquors, but I take wine to all my meals
because I like it.

PAUL BERT.
March 1, 1882.




PROFESSOR JOHN STUART BLACKIE.


My idea is, that work done under the influence of any kind of
stimulants is unhealthy work, and tends to no good. I never use any
kind of stimulant for intellectual work--only a glass of wine during
dinner to sharpen the appetite. As to smoking generally, it is a vile
and odious practice; but I do not know that, unless carried to excess,
it is in any way unhealthy. Instead of stimulants, literary men should
seek for aid in a pleasant variety of occupation, in intervals of
perfect rest, in fresh air and exercise, and a cultivation of
systematic moderation in all emotions and passions.

J. S. BLACKIE.
February 9, 1882.




M. LOUIS BLANC.


In answer to your letter, I beg to tell you that I do not know by
experience what may be the effects of tobacco and alcohol upon the
mind and health, not having been in the habit of taking tobacco and
drinking alcohol.

LOUIS BLANC.
March 9, 1882.




MR. J. E. BOEHM, R. A.


It will give me great pleasure if I can in any way contribute to your
so very interesting researches, and I shall be glad to know whether
you have published anything on the subject you have questioned me on.
I find vigorous exercise the first and most important stimulant to
hard work. I get up in summer at six, in winter at seven, take an hour
and a half's hard ride, afterwards a warm bath, a cold douche, and
then breakfast. I work from ten to seven generally; but twice or
thrice a week I have an additional exercise--an hour's fencing before
dinner, which I take at 8 p.m. I take light claret or hock to my
dinner, but never touch any wine or spirits at any other times, and
eat meat only once in twenty-four hours. I find a small cup of coffee
after luncheon very exhilarating. I smoke when hard at work--chiefly
cigarettes. After a long sitting (as I do not smoke while working
_from nature_), a cigarette is a soother for which I get a
perfect craving. In the evening, or when I am in the country doing
nothing, I scarcely smoke at all, and do not feel the want of it
there; nor do I then take at evening dinner more than one or two
glasses of wine, and I have observed that the same quantity which
would make me feel giddy in the country when in full health and
vigour, would not have the slightest effect on me when taken after a
hard day's work. I also observed that I can work longer without
fatigue when I have had my ride, than when for any reason I have to
give it up. I have carried this mode of life on for nearly twenty
years, and am well and feel young, though forty-eight. I never see any
one from ten to three o'clock; after that I still work, but must often
suffer interruption. I found that temperament and constitution are
rarely, if ever, a legitimate excuse for departure from abstinence and
sober habits. I have the conviction that in order to have the eye and
the brain clear, you ought to make your skin act vigorously at least
once in twenty-four hours.

J. E. BOEHM.
February 20, 1882.




DR. BREDENCAMP, ERLANGEN.


In reply to your letter, I am accustomed to smoke. If I do not smoke,
I cannot do my work properly; and it is quite impossible to do any
work in the morning without smoking. Strong drink I do not need at
all, but I drink two glasses of Bavarian beer, which contains very
little alcohol.

E. BREDENCAMP.
April 18, 1882.




MR. FORD MADOX BROWN, R. A.


I have smoked for upwards of thirty years, and have given up smoking
for the last seven years. Almost all my life I have taken alcoholic
liquors in moderation, but have also been a total abstainer for a
short period. My experience is that neither course with either
ingredient has anything to do with mental work as capacity for it;
unless, indeed, we are to except the incapacity produced by excessive
drinking, of which, however, I have no personal experience.

F. M. BROWN.
Feb. 28, 1882.




MR. ROBERT BUCHANAN.


I am myself no authority on the subject concerning which you write. I
drink myself, but not during the hours of work; and I smoke-pretty
habitually. My own experience and belief is, that both alcohol and
tobacco, like most blessings, can be turned into curses by habitual
self-indulgence. Physiologically speaking, I believe them both to be
invaluable to humankind. The cases of dire disease generated by total
abstinence from liquor are even more terrible than those caused by
excess. With regard to tobacco, I have a notion that it is only
dangerous where the vital organism, and particularly the nervous
system, is badly nourished.

ROBERT BUCHANAN.
March 7, 1882.




DR. BUDDENSEIG,
DRESDEN.


I have no decided opinion whatever as to the question you ask. I can
only say that I am a very small smoker, taking one or two cigars
daily, and I drink Rhine wine, but not daily, as most scholars or
those working with their brains generally do. There can be, I should
think, no question that immoderate use of alcohol produces most
destructive results.

E. BUDDENSEIG.
Feb. 20, 1882.




CAPTAIN FRED BURNABY.


In my humble opinion, every man must find out for himself whether
stimulants are a help to his intellectual efforts. It is impossible to
lay down a law. What would, perhaps, enable one man to write
brilliantly would make another man write nonsense. I myself, although
not an abstainer, should think it a great mistake to seek inspiration
in either tobacco or alcohol.

F. BURNABY.
March 2, 1882.




LIEUT.-COL. W. F. BUTLER.


In reply to your communication, asking for a statement of my
experience as to the effects of tobacco and alcohol upon the mind and
health, I beg to inform you that as I have not been in the habit of
using the first-named article at any period of my life, I am unable to
speak of its effects, mental or otherwise. With regard to alcohol, I
have found that although the brain may receive a temporary accession
to its production of thought, through the use of wine, etc., such
increased action is always followed by a decided weakening of the
thinking power, and that on the whole a far greater amount of
_even_ mental work is to be obtained without the use of alcohol
than with it.

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