The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1874-10-08
DIR. Hall on the Use of StimuIants.

The man is maniac, deliberate suicide,
who drinks tea, coffee, or ardent spirits of
any kind, to induce him to perform work
in hand and when he feels too weak to 90
through with it without such aid. This is
the reason that the majority of great ora
tors and public favOrites die drunkards.
The pulpit, the bench, the bar, the forum,
have contributed their legiOns of victims to
drunken habits. The beautiful woman,
the sweet singer, the eOnversatOnalist, the
periodical writer, has filled but too often a
drunkard's grave. Now that the press has
become great power in the land, when
the magazine must come out on certain
day and the daily newspaper at fixed
hour, nothing waits, everything gives way
to the ineXOrable call for copy. Sick or
well, disposed or indispOsed, asleep or
awake, that copy must come the writer
must compose his article whether he feels
like it or not, and if he is not in the vein
for writing he must whip himself up TO 1t
by the stimulus of drink. Some Of the
greatest writers of the century have con-
fessed to the practice, on urgent occasions,
of taking a sip of brandy at the end Ofeyery
written page, or even Oftener-LOrd By
ron at the end of every paragraph SOME
timesi
1t may have escaped the general readers
notice that more men have died young
who have been connected with the New
York press within ten years, and that TOO
from intemperance, than in all other edu-
cational callings put together; young
men whose talents have been of the first
order, and gave promise OF life OF useful
ness, honor and eminence. The best pos
sible thing for man to do when he feels
too tired to perform task, or too weak 10
carry it through, is to 90 10 bed and sleep
a week if he can this is the only true re-
cuperatiOn of brain-pOwer; the only ac-
tual renewal of brain forces, be-
cause during sleep the brain IS,
in a sense, at rest, in a condition to
receive and appropriate particles of nutri-
ment from the blood which take the place
of those which have been consumed in
previous labor, since the very act of think
ing consumes. burns up solid particles, as
every turn OF the wheel or screw Of the
splendid steamer is the result OF the con-
sumption by fire of the fuel in the furnace.
That supply of brain substance can only
be had from the nutrient particles in the
blood, which were obtained from the food
eaten previously, and the brain is so con-
stituted that it can best receive and apprO-
pirate itself those nutrient particles dur
ING the state of rest, quiet and stiffness of
sleep. Mere stimulants supply nothing in
themselves, they only gOad the brain, force
it to greater consumption of its sub
stance, until that substance has been so
fully exhausted that there is not power
enough left to receive a supply; just as
men are sometimes so near death by thirst
and starvation, that there is not strength
enough left to swallow anything, and all
is over. The capacity of the brain for re-
ceiving recuperative particles sometimes
comes on with the rapidity OF lightning,
and the man becomes mad IN an instant
in an instant falls into eOnvulsions, in an
| instant loses all sense, and he Is an idlOt.
II was under circumstances of this very
sort. Ia the very middle of sentence OF
| great oratOrial power, one Of the most en-
| fnent minds of the age forgot his idea,
pressed his hand against his forehead, and,
after a moments silence, said: 'God, as
with sponge, has blotted out my minq..
| Be assured, reader, there Is rest 10, the
weary only in early and abunsant sleep,
and wise and happy are they who = nave avg.
| firmness enough TO resolve that Dy GOd
help. | will seek it in no other way -
Halls Journal of Health.