Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1882-08-24
StimuIants and Tobacco.

The opinions of medical men as to
the use of stimulants as an auxilia-
ry to intellectual work are, says Mr..
Arthur Reale in Les MondeS, too di-
verse to have much effect upon the
habits of men of letters. Nor are
they in much better agreement, he
says, as to tobacco. That tobacco is a
poison is certain; so are many things
used, not only in medicine, but in food.
The influence of tobacco on brainwork
has been the subject of interminable
controversy, and the question has Oc-
cupied all classes Of society. One ar
gument Is that smoke helps men to
think Ito dream, rather), and 1T is as
serted that the journalist smokes in
writing, the man of science in solving
a problem, the artist in painting, the
clergyman in composing his sermon
that, in fact, every man great in
science, in literature, in arts, climbs
the ladder of fame with pipe or a
cigar in his mouth. Tennyson has
composed, it is said, his sweetest idylls
under the influence of nicotine. Carlyle
has taught the world philosophy, smoI-
ing.
Not the yol only have these
ideas. Accol ding to Andrew, MOltke
is a great snuff.taker, and it was due
to snuff that Napoleon was so pitt
lessly expelled from Belgium. Mr..
John G. Murray, in his volume on
smoking. undertakes to show when it
is dangerous, neutral or bene fetal to
smoke. He claims that Raleigh, Mil
ton. Dryden, Newton, Steel, Addison,
Swift. Congreve, BOlingbroke, Pope,
Johnson. Byron, Burns, Scott, Camp
bell, Moore. Dickens, spoke, wrote
aud sang under the influence of cof-
fee, that plant of mystic power. But
for those who have recourse to tobac-
CO, he adds. their genius is generally
but lightning-hash or meteor, in
volving too great mental tension. like
ly to drag reason from her throne and
plunge it in the night of chaos. Anoth-
or medical authority says that a mod
crate use of tobacco is as necessary to
the brain-worker rs moderation in the
use of alcohol.
On the other hand, the adversaries
OF tobacco regard the idea that smok-
ing helps sound thought as most
mischlevous delusion; they maintain.
on the contrary. that 1t renders men
incapable of intellectual labors. To
baccO leads to physical and mental in
dolence. Mr.. Reade considers that the
use of stimulants is subject which
should be examined in the light of the
experience of poets. artists, journalists,
men of science, authors, etc., in Europe
and America. M. PAbbe Moigno
makes the following remarks in reply
to Mr.. Arthur Reade's questions:
Though cannot offer myself as an
example, because my temperament is
too exceptional, my experience may
have some degree of usefulness. I
have published already hundred and
fifty volumes, small and great; scarce
ly ever leave my wOrk-table; i never
take walking exercise; yet l have not
experienced any trace of headache, or
brain-weariness, or constipation, or
any form of urinary trouble, etc.. etc.
Never, in order to work. or TO obtain
my full clearness of mind, have / had
occasion to take recourse to stimulants,
or coffee, or alcohol. or tobacco, etc.
on the contrary, in my case, stimu.
lants excite abnormal vibrations in the
brain. unfavorable to its prompt and
steady action.