The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1901-12-19
FOOD AND BRAINS.
Great Thinkers as Rule Are the Most
Absiemious of Men.


In a passage of his confessions" de.
scantlng upon the nature Of drunken
ness, DeQuincy concludes that the cx-
act condition indicated is n question of
accuracy IN terms. He was assured on
medical authority that man could be,
and had been, drunk upon a beefsteak.
This Is largely true. for even solid
food may produce at any rate. great
mental torpor. The comfort of good
dinner may have suggested n writer's
theme, we doubt If 1t ever promptly
stirred his pen. 1t is the empty stom-
ach that best suits full head, and
ideas that flow out freely before, re-
tire with the entry of substantial
repast.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, with that
charming blend of wit and scientific
knowledge that gave the distinction
to his writings. has discoursed upon
this very point. He talks Of the "bul-
bous-headed fellows steaming as they
write" and shows how to meet the
| demands of thought and imagination.
The brain must have more than its
share of the circulating blood. There
must be no rival in the full liver or
the actively digesting glands of the
| gastric mucous membrane. DO not
eat heavily, then, if you are soon to
think hard Either your ideas or your
dinner will be neglected and lie
sorry weight upon your head or your
epigastrium. The poor, half-starving
poet is familiar to everyone. We may
mitigate our pity by rejecting that in
many cases he would have been no
poet If he had not starved.
Enough fuel to sustain the fire of
life is necessary for work, but heap on
the coal, and you will deaden the over
| burdened flame. The great thinkers,
the great workers in any direction but
a purely physical one, have for the
most part been abstemious men. II
not naturally of small appetite they
have exercised constant restraint,
grudging from the play Of higher func-
tons every moment and every energy
| spent upon the animal activities of
their nature. Habit soon helps the
fine nature of such people, and it be-
comes natural for them to eat less. TO
drink less and to sleep less than their
| fellows. Thus, in long line of in.
tellectual activity, many score Of hours
are utilized for the main purpose
which in the case Of other men are
squandered upon the dinner table or in
the mere nothingness of sleep or idllng.
Carlyle was justified in declaring Il
capacity for work to be the essence
Of genius. Whatever great mans life
Is read, no matter how brilliant his
natural gifts, soo..er or later he is
| found TO have worked with unswerving
constancy and imperturbable devotion.
| Others as gifted have left no mark;
| it is in the will and the power to work
| that the genius asserted itself It is
| common to hear man say "So-and-so
is a genius, if he worked he could do
anything" Just because he does not
work "So-and-so" must be denied the
| title In the natural sciences and pro-
| fessions such as medicine that depend
upon them, the inevitableness of great
work for great achievement is, per-
of art and literature The artist and
the writer of genius are gifted with
inspirations falling to no man Of mere
talent, however hard he works. Yet
even so the genius works to illustrate
| his inspiration. whether it is Raphael
at his easel, or Shakespeare at his desk,
with a kind of frenzy Of application
and a continuous determination that
are impossible to men not so endowed.
Such labors of the will and of the
brain demand at the time the whole
energies Of a human being. No lower
members of the confederated body,
which is man, must seek employment
while the master parts are thus Mt
work. So it is, then, that the little
eating worker blesses the world with
fruits which the voluptuary and the
gourmet man may possibly enjoy in
his well-fed ease but can never hope in
the least degree to emulate.-London
Lancet