The Savannah morning news., 1901-12-24
THE STOMACH AND THE BRAIN.
The latter Works Best when the
Former Is Not Overloaded.


Former Is Not Overloaded.
The London Lancet assures its read
ers that a mar who is too we'll fed is
not likely to do much brain work.
"In a passage of his Confessions
descanting upon the nature Of drunk
exact condition indicated is ques-
ton of accuracy in terms" says the
Lancet HE was assured, on medical
authority, that a man could be, and
had been. drunk on d beefsteak. This
Is largely true, for even solid food may
produce al any rate great mental tor
por. The comfort of q good dinner
may have suggested a writer's theme,
but we doubt whether it ever promptly
stirred his pen. 1t is the empty stom-
ach that bests suits full head. and
ideas that flow out freely before re-
tire with the entry of a substantial
repast. Oliver Wendell Holmes, with
that charming blend of wit and scien-
tific knowledge that gave the dtstinc-
ton to his writings, has dlscoursed
upon this very point. He talks of the
dubious headed fellows steaming as
they write. and shows how to meet
the demands of thought and imagina-
ton.
THE brain must have more than it's
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 in a
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 neces-
sary for work, but heap on the coal
and you will deaden the overburdened
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 natural
ly OF small appetite they have exer-
cised constant restraint, grudging from
the play OF higher functions every mo-
ment and every energy spent upon the
animal activities of their nature.
Habit soon helps the fine effort Of
such people, and IL becomes natural
for them to eat less, to drink less and
to sleep less than their fellows. Thus,
in a long life OF intellectual 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 nothing
ness of sleep or idllng. CARLYLE was
justified in declaring capacity for
work to be the essence of genius.
Whatever great mans life is read no
matter how brilliant his natural gifts.
sooner or later he is found to have
worked with answering constancy
and imperturbable devotion. Others as
gifted have left no mark: Ii was IN
the will and power to work that the
genius asserted itself. II is common
TO hear a man say, 'So-and-so Is a
genius; II he worked he could do any
thing. Just because he does not work
'5o-and-so' must be denied the title
In the natural sciences and profess
sions, such as medicines. that depend
upon them the inevitableness of great
work for great achievement is, per-
haps, more obvious than in the SER
vice of art and literature.
THE artist and the writer Of genius
are gifted with inspiration 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 contin-
uous 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 hu-
man being. No lower member Of the
confederated body must seek employ
nnent while the master parts are thus
at work. So II Is. then, that the little
eating worker blesses the world with
fruits which the voluptuary and the
gourmet may possibly enjoy at his
well-fed ease, but can never hope to
emulate A"