St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-12-19
FOOD AND BRAlN.WORK.
Effect of Diet Upon the Mind an
Heart of Literary Men.

Heart of Literary Men.
The door of big events, remarks the
Caterer, often swings upon the smallest of
hinges The cackling of goose saved a
city; tear in Cleopatri's eye lost an en-
pire; and. coming down to more modern
times, leg Of mutton controlled the tide Of
| Leipsic's battle aud changed the Topographic
| face of a continent,
the influence of food on the mind, and
| its understanding to its propriety or i'm
proprlety-to corrupt OF purify the heart,
! has been asserted time and again; and the
assertion is too well sustained by everyday
observation to be attributed to the outflow
of mere metaphysical speculation. The
world contains. according to Hannah More,
but two evils-sin and bile; and the con-
| cluSion is logical, and if good cookery
! which means, as a consequence, good and
proper food-were universal, it would have
neither evil: for bad food is the prolific
source of bile; and bile. if we are to believe
! the theory OF certain SavantS, is the founda-
| ton of all sin. And indeed, there is no
reason why we should not adopt the above
theory as sound. In the administration of
| justice in our criminal courts, juries are be-
| coming more and more satisfied. from the
| evidence of medical witnesses and experts,
| to treat it as a fact that crime may owe its
| origin as much to diseased body as dis
ordered mind; esteeming the connection be-
| tween
| THE MIND AND BODY
to be so close that if the latter is shackled
| With disease it is hardly possible for the
| former to be free and therefore responsible
| for the acts of its owner. If food, then,
issso double in its etfects-in other words,
controlling the action both of body and
mind-it is rather safe to say that the brain
can't escape, and, therefore, that the eff
| fusiOns of writers derive their quality from
| the character of that which may be habtu-
| ally selected for nOurishment, whether this be
| in eating or drinking. ''He who drinks beer,
thinks BEER" is a homely proverb, but one,
| nevertheless, whose force and truth will
become plain even to the cursory reader of
current and past literature. The coarse
ness, pungency. and sensuallty-not I'M
mixed with vigor---which characterize
Elizabethan literature indicate the manner
of life in that beer-drinking age, and show
strong contrast with the polished emana-
tons of later-day brans when wine had
superseded beer as an accustomed drink,
smoothing the cOarseness without injuring
the vigOr of thought and expression. We
make no allusion here to Shakespeare. He is
an anomaly we leave to the impudent and
impotent criticism of holder pans than ours;
yet there is no doubt that had he fiOurished
century later, the demands of an age,
made more refined by change in dietary
rules, would have rendered it unnecessary
for him to
PROSTITUTE HIS GREATNESS
and mar his beauties, with that for which
the discrimination of future ages was to be
too narrow and unjust to make any allow
ance. Like his sovereign and all her SUBJ
jects. he, too, was lover of beer, and to
that he infused his writings with enough
freshness and vigor to enable them to stand
while the world lasts. Good, solid food,
then, and nutritious fluids are essential to
him who would give force to the labors of
his brain. Tea may appear, in the eyes of
sum, more harmless drink than beer; yet
the tea-drinkers thoughts might not outlive
the time they took to write them. Dean
Swift. 1t is true, was fond of his cup of tea:
but it was not owing to that fact that his
writings still live. He did not confine him
self to 1.-The cup that cheers and not in
ebriates," but was lover of the other one
that knows so well how to do both. Dr..
johnson was also passionate lover of tea,
but, like Swift, he divided his affections.
He made the pleasures of the table a study,
and seated before Widespread dinner, he
would jilt the teapot, and bottle of port
would then become sole mistress of his
heart.
The uneven character of both Swift's and
Johnson's writings show that the action of
their brains at different times could not have
been urged by food or liquor of the same
quality. And we think a curious and care
full reader will have little difficulty in pick
ing out from their literary productions
those written under the influence of a tea
debauch