paper and pencil suspended by string, by the help of which I write every morning the ideas I have been able to conceive, particularly upon subjects of scientific research. [Footnote: Curtis, I think, says that whenever Emerson has a "happy thought," he writes it down, be it dawn or midnight, and when Mrs. Emerson, startled in the night by some unusual sound, cries, "What is the matter? Are you ill?" the philosopher's soft voice answers, "No, my dear, only an idea."-- _Appleton's New York Journal, Nov., 1873.] I write these notes in obscurity, and decipher and develop them in the morning, pen in hand. This is the reply I can make to your interesting enquiry. I shall be happy to know the conclusion to which you will be conducted by the information which you will have been able to collect. GASTON PLANTE. THE REV. A. PLUMMER, HEAD MASTER OF THE DURHAM COLLEGE. University Tutor and Lecturer, and University Proctor. I am a firm believer in the value of a moderate use of tobacco and alcohol for the brain worker. I generally smoke one pipe in the morning, _before_ work, and one at night, _after_ work (or the equivalents of a pipe). I seldom smoke _while_ I work, and do not find it helpful. I drink two glasses of sherry (or their equivalents), as a rule daily, and take them at late dinner--not at lunch. If troubled with sleeplessness, I find a glass of sherry, and a few biscuits, followed by smoking, a tolerably safe cure, but not always to be relied upon. I should be very sorry to attempt to do without these two helps. Of the two I believe the smoking to be the more valuable, especially when (what is far worse than heavy work) _worry_ is pressing upon one. I am wholly sceptical as to the value of work before breakfast. Let a man get up as early as he likes: but don't let him try to work on an empty stomach. The Irishman was wise who said that when he worked before breakfast, he always had something to eat first. A. PLUMMER April 6, 1882. MR. EDWARD POCKNELL, (POCKNELL'S PRESS AGENCY AND LONDON ASSOCIATED REPORTERS.)