The reason we have so many sickly
productions in our literature arises probably from the fact that our
writers, perhaps, add a little alcohol to their ink, and view life
through the fumes of nicotine.
M. JULES CLARETIE.
Feb. 26, 1882.
MR. HYDE CLARKE, F. S. S.
As I am not an adherent of the teetotal abstinence movement, I beg
that everything I write may be accepted with this reservation. I have
never seen that any great thinker has found any help or benefit from
the use of stimulants-either alcohol or tobacco. My observations and
experiences are unfavourable to both classes of stimulants. In my own
case, I gave up smoking before my scientific work began. Alcoholic
drinks I used moderately, but I was a water drinker chiefly. Of late
years, from illness, I have given up alcoholic drinks; but were I in
full health, I should use them moderately. In the course of a public
life of about forty years, I have seen the ill-effects of drinking
upon many journalists and others; but it appears to me that smoking
produces still greater evil. A man knows when he is drunk, but he does
not know when he has smoked too much, until the effects of
accumulation have made themselves permanent. To smoking are to be
traced many affections of the eyes, and of the ears, besides other
ailments. I have heard much said in favour of smoking and drinking,
but never saw any favourable result.
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