On the whole, I am but a moderate smoker, and seldom smoke whilst
walking, but at work I must have my cigar, and find it agrees very
well with my health. Most of my learned and literary friends smoke;
but two or three of them have given it up in their later years without
visible effect upon their health or mental strength. As to alcohol, I
could not stand to drink brandy. Sometimes I drink a glass, but only
as an exception. I find it much more convenient for me, and a good
help to work, to take now and then a bottle of hock or champagne; but,
as a rule, I drink half a bottle of claret at dinner, and a pint of
beer at supper. I generally write in the morning from nine to
half-past one, when I dine; and from five o'clock in the afternoon to
nine, when I take supper, but I could not bear to drink either wine or
beer while at work.
JULIUS RODENBERG.
March 12, 1882.
DR. W. H. RUSSELL.
I am not able to give you any very positive expression of opinion on
the matter respecting which you write, but I can say that I have
smoked tobacco and taken wine for years, and though I cannot aver that
I should not have done as well without them, I have felt comforted and
sustained in my work by both at times, especially by the weed.
However, I was very well in the last campaign in South Africa, where
for some time we had neither wine nor spirits. Climate has a good deal
to say to the craving for a stimulant, and men in India, who never
drink in England, there consume "pegs" and cheroots enormously.
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