MAXIME DU CAMP.
Feb. 17, 1882.




DR. W. B. CARPENTER, C. B., LL. D., F. R. S.


In reply to your enquiry, I have to inform you that I have never felt
the need of alcoholic stimulants as a help in intellectual efforts; on
the contrary, I have found them decidedly injurious in that respect,
except when used with the strictest moderation. For about eleven years
of the hardest-working period of my life, that in which I produced my
large treatises on Physiology, edited the Medical Quarterly Review,
and did a great deal of other literary work, besides lecturing, I was
practically a total abstainer, though I never took any pledge. I
undoubtedly injured myself by over-work during that period, as I have
more than once done since under the pressure of official duty; but the
injury has shown itself in the failure of appetite and digestive
power. After many trials, I have come to the practical conclusion that
I get on best, while in London, by taking with my dinner a couple of
glasses of very light Claret, and simply as an aid in the digestion of
the food which is required to keep up my mental and bodily power. But
when "on holiday" in Scotland, or elsewhere, I do not find the need of
this. I have never smoked tobacco, or used it in any form. I need
scarcely say that I have never used any other "nervine stimulants."
You are at perfect liberty to make use of this communication.

WM. B. CARPENTER.