  In answer to your letter asking for my experience and opinion as a worker, on the subject of tobacco and alcoholic stimulants, I must begin by saying that reflection and experience should teach us the truth of the adage that "What is one man's meat is another man's poison," and that what may be wisely recommended in some cases is by no means desirable in all; in fact, that it is equally unwise and illiberal to dogmatise upon any subject that is not capable of scientific proof. Being myself a total abstainer from tobacco, and equally so, when not recommended by my doctor, from wine and all stimulants, I confess to having a strong prejudice against them. The use of wine seems to be natural to man, and it is possible he would be the better for it if it could be restrained within very moderate limits; but I have good reason for concluding that the more active stimulants are altogether harmful. It is natural as time goes on that new wants should be acquired, and new luxuries discovered, and doubtless it is in the abuse, and not in the use, of such things that the danger lies; but we all know how prone humanity is to abuse in its indulgences. It is, I believe, an admitted fact that even people who are considered to be strictly temperate as a rule, habitually take more wine than is good for them. With regard to tobacco, I cannot help thinking that its introduction by civilised races has been an unmixed evil. History shows us that before it was known the most splendid mental achievements were carried put, and the most heroic endurance exhibited, things done which if it be possible to rival, it is quite impossible to excel. The soldier, and sailor, the night-watchman especially in malarious districts may derive comfort and benefit from its use, and there I think it should be left; for my observation has induced me to think that nothing but evil results from its use as a luxurious habit. The subject is doubtless one of vital interest and importance; but I must end as I began by disclaiming a right to dogmatise. G. F. WATTS. PROFESSOR ANDREW WILSON, Ph. D., F. R. S. E. The question you ask concerning the effects of alcohol and tobacco upon the health of brain-workers, relatively (I presume) to myself, is a complex one. Personally, I find with often excessive work in the way of lecturing, long railway journeys, and late hours, writing at other times, that I digest my food with greater ease when I take a little claret or beer with meals. Experiment has convinced me that the slight amount of alcohol I imbibe in my claret is a grateful stimulus to digestion. As to smoking, I take an occasional cigar, but only after dinner, and never during the day. As to health, I never suffer even from a headache. I usually deliver 18 lectures a week, often more; and I have often to make journeys of over 50 miles after a hard day's work here, to lecture in the country. My writing is done at night chiefly, but as a rule, I don't sit after 12-30. My work is exceptionally constant, yet I seem to be exceptionally healthy. I regard my claret or wine to meals in the same light in which others regard their tea, as a pleasant stimulus, followed in my case by good effect. At the same time, there may be others who may do the same amount of work as abstainers. My position in this matter has always been that of recognising the individual phases of the matter as the true basis of its settlement. What I can urge is, that I am an exceptionally healthy man, doing what I may fairly claim to be exceptionally hard work, and careful in every respect of health, finding that a moderate quantity of alcohol, with food, is for me better than total abstinence. Whiskey, or alcohol, in its strong forms I never taste. ANDREW WILSON. |
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