HEALTH COLUMN.

Otago Witness, Issue 1959, 10 September 1891, Page 42

HEALTH COLUMN.

THE USK *>F TOBACCO AND ALCOHOL. (Paris Oorrespondentjof the Times.) Count Tolstoi has published an article on the effects of tobacco and alcohol, which has been translated into many language^ and has aroused much discussion, I have been favoured with the opportunity of- giving the opinions of M. Gounod, M. Alphonse Daudet M. Jean Richepin, M. Zola, and DrCharcot M. Gotmod says :— « I think that the habit of using tobacco produces a sluggishness of the intellectual faculties, that this sluggishness follows upon the habit, and by abuse may reach even to atrophy. lam not so sure that it could positively result in the annihilation of conscience, whose witness is too startling to undergo so easily an eclipse so disastrous. I say conscience, be it noted ,• Ido not say will," Conscience is a divine decree ; will is a human energy* The latter can be weakened by abuse of the organs ; the former, however, seems to me quite beyond all effect of the sort, because it creates the responsibility without which man ceases to be amenable. 1 have smoked a great deal. I do not recall that it has ever modified the judgment of my conscience or the morality of my acts." M. Alphonse Daudefc writes : — " In reply to your question, let me say to you that certainly your admirable Tolstoi is under unfortunate obligations to our Tarascons. He sees everything larger than life, and in his case one must always bring him to the point. Doubtless abuse of tobacco and alcohol is folly; but after dinner nothing is so good aa a good pipe taken with one or two little glasses of excellent brandy. As for myself, I have never sought, and I never shall seek, alcohol as a stimulant for work. When it happened to make me drunk when I was a young man I was incapable of writing or conceiving a line. In return, I have smoked a great deal while working, and the more I Bmoked the better I worked. I have never noticed that tobacco was injurious ; and, by a kindness of nature, when I am not well even the smell of a cigarette is odious." M. Eichepin says:— "l have .taken the keenest interest in Tolstoi's essay on narcotics and stimulants, but I cannot fully agree with it. It seems to me exaggerated in attributing the habit of intoxication merely to a desire to stifle the moral conscience. I believe that what is especially sought in it is a means of avoiding the essential conscience — the conscience without any name — I mean the simple conscience of self. In the state of drunkenness, intoxication, or reverie thus obtained it is the instinctive unconscious self almost which rules. But is it perforce immoral ? In my humble opinion it is only non-moral— that is, not good nor bad, as the case may be, but essentially neither the one nor the other. The great delight then experienced is particularly the delight of nirvana. Let the abuse of this pleasure blunt the will and paralyse activity, let these go from you, and then I agree with Tolstoi in thinking such abuse deplorable for the vitality of the individual and of the race. But I believe that the and the race, if they are strong, can, without indiscretion, permit themselves these fugitive escapades, destructive—if carried to their logical conclusion— of self, and that, so far from being weakened thereby, they will gain a sort of strength, as in a dream of momentary forgetfulnes* from which one wakes with a keener taste than before. .... I no longer emoke." M. Zola saya : — " I do not drink wine, but i I do not suppose that that makes me wise, for I am thus temperate only for the sake of ray health. It would be indeed to romance to think with Tolstoi that man goes from instinct to tobacco and alcohol from a necessity of putting to sleep his conscience before fatal sin. I regard the vice rather as silly and a matter merely of bonhomie. Certainly one drinks for pleasure, and one smokes first from ostentation and afterwards from habit. And, good heavens I Why not leave this pleasure and this habit to those who do not suffer from it?" Dr Oharcot writes :— " I am compelled to admit that I do not find the article of Tolstoi very able. It is exaggerated, and therefore false. Alcohol and tobacco are injurious, but they can be used in moderation. There are numerous examples of this. Moreover, before abohol and tobacco there came into the world abominable things. Indeed, since their introduction civilisation has rather softened. Must one say, then, that tobacco and alcohol are moral forces 1 In everything I hate extreme positions. I believe in common sense, and I do not see that the position of Tolstoi conforms to its dictates." I may be allowed to add in my turn that in this question, as always, Tolstoi remains just what he is— a powerful mind with original ideas full of brilliant sagacity, but his excessive imagination leads him far astray and magnifies things beyond all measure. He feels, moreover, so great a necessity of showing himself absolutely original that he prefers to arrive at unexpected conclusions, however false, than those ' which are logical and exact, but have already penetrated other minds. The abuse of tobacco and alcohol leads to moral degradation by means of physical degradation ; but their use, even when a little extravagant, cannot lead to the destruction of the conscience ; and I knew intimately a man who died at the age of 86, having preserved all his buoyancy and conscience, who throughout his life had had neither ache ncr dyspepsia, who preserved all his faculties, but who had smoked for 70 consecutive years — from 16 to 86—14 hours a day, so that he consumed during his life 75001b of tobacco. It is clear that in the light of such an experience the conclusions of Count Tolstoi appear as illogical as exaggerated ; and, as says M. Alphonse Daudet, " His man of the north has in him something of the south."

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