and nights without feeling any want of sleep and, so to say, without
fatigue, notwithstanding the labour of the stenographic translations.
As you see, I consider that tobacco and alcohol do not act as
stimulants, but rather as narcotics. With me they induce after the
first moment of excitement a sort of calm and somnolence altogether
incompatible with severe work; and I prefer coffee, always on the
condition that as soon as the effort to be accomplished is finished
the use of it must cease. I will not invoke the precedents of the
celebrated men who have been led to make great use of coffee without
impairing their health. It is after many years' experience that I have
acted as I have indicated.

L. P. GUENIN.
March 11, 1582.




DR. WILLIAM GUY.


In answer to your enquiry, I may state the result of my personal
experience and observation thus :-1. Alcoholic liquors, when taken in
such quantity as to excite the circulation, are unfavourable to all
inquiries requiring care and accuracy, but not unfavourable to efforts
of the imagination. 2. Tobacco taken in small quantities is not
unwholesome in its action on mind or body. When taken in excess it is
not easy to define or describe its action, the chief fact relating to
it being that it increases the number of the pulse, but lessens the
force of the heart. 3. My personal experience of such quantities of