March 25, 1882.




M. GASTON PLANTE.


I am much flattered by the interest that you attach to my opinion on
the subject of the influence that certain substances can have upon
thought and upon intellectual work. I must tell you frankly that I
have not found that tobacco or alcohol have an advantageous influence.
It is true that I have not made much use of them--I have never taken
pure spirits, such as brandy, but only of wine containing a little. I
have been obliged sometimes, in trying to fortify my health, to take
some Bordeaux wine, and I have not observed that any appreciable
effect resulted from it upon the facility of intellectual work. From
the point of view of health, I counted particularly upon the iron
contained in good Bordeaux wine, but I have found that the alcohol in
the wine over-excited the nervous system, provoked sleeplessness and
cramps; and I have finally adopted as a drink wine mixed with water,
and even this in very small quantities. As to tobacco, I have also
tried it; and far from thinking that it favours intellectual work, I
believe, with one of our learned writers (the Abbe Moigno, Editor of
the "_Journal du Mondes_"), that its use tends to weaken the
memory. Neither do I make use of coffee, which equally excites the
nervous system, although, like all the world, I have observed that
this substance gives a certain intellectual activity. What I have
found out most clearly is what everyone has observed from time
immemorial--that the clearest ideas, the happiest and most fruitful