MAGNUS.
Breslau, February 28, 1882.




MR. EDWARD MAITLAND, B. A.


In reply to your enquiries, I have to say that my experience of the
effects of alcohol and tobacco upon intellectual work is a very
limited one, owing to the very moderate use I have made of either. So
far, however, as my experience goes, my conclusions are as follows:
tobacco, though it may, indeed, give a momentary fillip to the
faculties, lessens their power of endurance; for by lowering the
action of the heart, it diminishes the blood supply to the brain,
leaving it imperfectly nourished, and flaccid, and unable, there-fore,
to make due response to the demands of its owner, the man within, who
seeks to manifest himself through the organism. Of an organism thus
affected, as of an underpitched musical instrument, the tones will be
flat. Of stimulants, the effect is the contrary. Owing to the
over-tension of the strings, the music will be sharp. It is apt also
to be irregular and discordant, owing to the action set up in the
organism itself--an action which is not that of the performer or man.
That which alone ought to find expression, is the central, informing
spirit of the individual; and for both idea and expression to be
perfect, the first essential is purity, mental as well as physical.
Hence, however great a man and his work may be, under the influence of
alcohol or tobacco, or on a diet of flesh, they would be still greater
on pure natural regimen. Of course, there are cases in abundance in