bannings bestowed upon tobacco and the various forms of alcohol.

What is the real influence of stimulants and narcotics upon the brain?
Do they give increased strength, greater lucidity of mind and more
continuous power? Do they weaken and cloud the intellect, and lessen
that capacity for enduring a prolonged strain of mental exertion which
is one of the first requisites of the intellectual life? Would a man
who is about to enter upon the consideration of problems, the correct
solution of which will demand all the strength and agility of his
mind, be helped or hindered by their use? These are questions which
are asked every day, and especially by the young, who seek in vain for
an adequate reply. The student grappling with the early difficulties
of science and literature, wishes to know whether he will be wiser to
use or to abstain from stimulants.

The theoretical aspect of the question has perhaps been sufficiently
discussed; but there still remains the practical inquiry,--"What has
been the experience of those engaged in intellectual work?" Have men
of science--the inventors, the statesmen, the essayists, and novelists
of our own day--found advantage or the reverse in the use of alcohol
and tobacco?

The problem has for years exercised my thoughts, and with the hope of
arriving at _data_ which would be trustworthy and decisive, I
entered upon an independent inquiry among the representatives of
literature, science, and art, in Europe and America. The replies were
not only numerous, but in most cases covered wider ground than that
originally contemplated. Many of the writers give details of their
habits of work, and thus, in addition to the value of the testimony on
this special topic, the letters throw great light upon the methods of