Evening star., 1901-11-09
FOOD AND BRAINS.
Great Thinkers q Rule Are Alb
stemiOus Men.

stemfOus Men.
From the London Lancet.
In a passage of his confessions" de-
scanting upon the nature of drunkenness,
DeQuincy concludes that the exact con-
dition indicated is a question of accuracy
in terms. He was assured on medical au-
thority 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
writer's theme, We doubt IL it ever prompt
ly stirred his pen. 1t is the empty stomach
that best suits full head and ideas that
flow out freely before, retire with the en-
try of a substantial repast.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, with that charm
that gave the distinction to his writings.
has discoursed upon this very point. He
talks of the dubious headed fellows steam
ing 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 nard. 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 every one. 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 overburdened
flame The great thinkers. the great work
ers in any direction but a purely physical
one, have for the most part been abstemi-
Gus men. If not naturally of small appe-
tite they have exercised constant restraint
grudging from the pay of higher functions
every moment and every energy spent
upon the animal activities of their nature
Habit soon helps the fine effort of such
people and it becomes natural for them to
eat less, to drink less and to sleep less than
their fellows. Thus, in a long life Of intel
lectual activity many scores 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 idling
Carlyle was justified in declaring a ca
pacity for work to be the essence of genius
Whatever great mans life is read no mat
ter how brilliant his natural gifts
sooner or later he is found to have
worked with answering constancy and
lmperturbable devotion. Others as gift
ed have left no mark; it was in
genius asserted itself. 1t is common to
hear man say 'So-and-so is a genius. If
ne worked he could do anything" Just be-
cause ne does not work ''So-and-so' must
be denied the title. In the natural sciences
and professions such as medicine that de-
pend upon them, the inevita bleness of great
Work Tor great achievement is, perhaps,
more OBVIOUS than In the service 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 If iS
Raphael at his easel or Shakespeare at his
desk, with kind of frenzy of application
and 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
human being. No lower members of the
confederated body, which is man, must seek
employ ment while the master parts are
thus at work. So it is, then, that the
ittie-eating worker blesses the world with
fruits which the voluptuary and the gour-
met may possibly enjoy at his well-fed ease
but can never hope in the least degree IN
emulate. w