I should have thought that the universal experience of mankind had already been set on record without much ambiguity. It has been my practice to smoke at work, and I do not think I could get along without tobacco now, unless I made an effort, the profit of which could scarcely justify the pains. As a matter of nature, I do not believe that a man works either better or worse for the use of tobacco, unless he smokes so much as to injure his general health. Alcoholic drinks are, of course, mentally as well as physically stimulative, and I have found them useful at a pinch. But everybody knows that stimulants are reactionary, and it is pretty certain that in the end they take more out of a man than they put into him. Under extraordinary pressure they have their uses, but their habitual employment muddles the faculties, and the last state of the man who constantly works on them is worse than the first. Continually taken alone, and as a stimulant to mental exertion, their influences on a man of average formation are fatal. But I should have thought all these things settled long ago, unless it were in junior debating societies.

D. CHRISTIE MURRAY.
April 11, 1882.