Show boxly on alcohol and borto the following letter dated april S to mr E of bolton published in the life and lettera 0 huxley by his son 1 I understand that yn ask me what I 1 think about alcohol as a to the brain in mental work speaking for myself and perhaps I 1 may add tor persona of my temperament I 1 can say without hesitation that I 1 would just as soon take a boso doso of arsenic as I 1 would of alcohol under euch circumstances indeed on the whole I 1 should think the arsenic safer lese likely to lead to physical and moral it would be better to die outright than to be alcohol iced before death it a man cannot do brain work without stimulants of any kind he bad better turn to hard work it Is an in il catlon on nature s part that she did not mean him to be a head worker the circumstances of my life have led me to all sorts ol 01 conditions in regard to alcohol from total abstinence to nearly the other end of the scale and my clear conviction Is the less the better though I 1 by no means feel called upon to forego the comforting and cheering effect of a little but for no conceivable consider alon would I 1 use it to whip up a tired or sluggish brain indeed tor me there Is no working time so good as between breakfast and lunch when there Is not a trace of alcohol in my corn position from the above we have the follow ing clear conclusion arrived at by one of the cleverest and deepest thinkers of our day that as a stimulant to the brain in mental work it would be better to take a dose of arsenic than a dose of alcohol after the widest experience of various quantities of alcohol he thinks the less the better these opinions should be sufficient to induce any one to adopt the practice of total abstinence but alas for the frailty of human nature even huxley did not feel himself called upon to do medical temperance review efa |