While I consider a moderate use of wine and beer advantageous-except,
of course, where beer, as is often the case, affects the liver, I
regard the use of spirits as wholly deleterious, except when medically
required, and should like to see the tax upon spirits raised tenfold.
A glass of spirits and water may do no harm, but there is such a
tendency upon the part of those who use them to increase the dose, and
the end is, in that case, destruction to mind and body.
G. A. HENTY.
February 22, 1882.
MR. OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES
Prefers an entirely undisturbed and unclouded brain for mental work,
unstimulated by anything stronger than tea or coffee, unaffected by
tobacco or other drags. His faculties are best under his control in
the forenoon, between breakfast and lunch. The only intellectual use
he could find in stimulants is the quickened mental action they induce
when taken in company. He thinks ideas may reach the brain when
slightly stimulated, which remain after the stimulus has ceased to
disturb its rhythms. He does not habitually use any drink stronger
than water. He has no peremptory rule, having no temptation to
indulgence, but approaching near to abstinence as he grows older. He
does not believe that any stimulus is of advantage to a healthy
student, unless now and then socially, in the intervals of mental
labour.
MR. GEORGE JACOB HOLYOAKE.
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