Study and Stimulants: Or, the Use of Intoxicants and Narcotics in Relation to Intellectual Life, as Illustrated by Personal Communications on the Subject, from Men of Letters and of Science
Science
Study and Stimulants: Or, the Use of Intoxicants and Narcotics in Relation to Intellectual Life, as Illustrated by Personal Communications on the Subject, from Men of Letters and of Science
I am not a teetotaler, and enjoy a glass of light wine, but always
take it as I sucked lollypops when a child, not because "it is good
for my complaint," or any such humbug, but simply because I am so low
in the scale of creation, as imperfect, as far from angelic, as to be
capable of occasionally enjoying a certain amount of purely sensual
indulgence, and of doing so from nothing higher than purely sensual
motives.
If all would admit this, and freely confess that their drinking or
smoking, however moderate, is simply a folly or a vice, they would be
far less liable to go to excess than when they befool themselves by
inventing excuses that cover their weaknesses with a flimsy disguise
of medicinal necessity, or other pretended advantage. In all such
cases the physical mischief of the alcohol is supplemented by the
moral corruption of habitual hypocrisy."
_Knowledge_, August 18, 1882.
DR. BURNEY YEO, M. D.
"With regard to the effect of moderate doses of alcohol on mental
work much difference of opinion exists. Many students find that,
instead of helping them in their work, it hinders them. It dulls
their receptive faculties. Others, on the contrary, find real help in
moderate quantities of wine. These differences of effect would seem
to depend greatly on differences in constitutional temperament. It is
certainly capable, for a time, of calling some of the mental
faculties into increased activity. Some of the best things that have
ever been said have been said under the influence of wine. The
circulation through the brain is quickened, the nervous tissue
receives more nourishment, the imagination is stimulated, and ideas
flow more rapidly, but it is doubtful if the power of close reasoning
be not always diminished. It is useful for reviving mental power,
when from accidental circumstances, such as want of food, &c., it has
been exhausted, but it should never be relied upon as an aid to
continuous effort or close application."
_Fortnightly Review_. Vol. 21, p. 547.
CONCLUSION.
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