July 21, 1882. 



KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



121 



An order of immense extent, tliat of the Ungulata, or 

 " hoofed " quadrupeds, forms the sixth division. Here the 

 largely-developed nails, called " hoofs," are met with, and 

 all four limbs are always developed. The rhinoceroses, 

 horses, pigs, ruminant animals (sheep, deer, oxen, camels, 

 itc), hippopotamus, itc, represent this group. The seventh 

 division is that of the elephants (Froboscidea), the characters 

 of these animals requiriug no special mention. The hyrax, 

 or " coney " of scripture, represents the eighth group, and 

 resembles the rodents or "gnawers" in some respects, 

 \vhilst it is also allied to the rhinoceroses, if the form and 

 structure of the molar or grinding teeth are considered. 

 The Cnrnivora, or lions, tigers, wolves, dogs, bears, 

 seals and walrus succeed, as order the ninth ; and 

 the Rodents, or gnawers, with chisel-shaped front teeth, 

 growing from permanent pulps, and represented by 

 the rats, mice, beavers, squirrels, porcupines, itc, form 

 the tenth division. The bats, or C/ieiropf<;i-a, with an 

 elongated hand of four lingers (and a short thumb), adapted 

 to support a flying -membrane, form the eleventh group. 

 The Jnseclivora are the twelfth order, and present us with 

 the moles, shrews, and hedgehogs as types. The Primates 

 (including the Quadrnmann, or monkeys, and Bimana, or 

 man) bring us at once to the concluding order, and to the 

 height of animal development. 



(To he Continued.) 



STIMULANTS AND STUDY. 



By the Editor. 



MR ARTHUR READE, described in les jVondes 

 as author of the Litterary Soxidth, has recently 

 elicited from my esteemed friend, M. I'Abbe Moigno, 

 certain useful notes about the habits suitable for literary 

 or scientific workers, ilr. Reade had remarked that men 

 of letters are commonly supposed to sustain themselves by 

 stimulants. It is to be feared, he says*, that fifty years 

 ago there was somewhat too close a connection between 

 stimulants and literature ; but since then the habits of 

 men of letters have, fortunately, undergone great changes. 

 The inveterate smokers and wine-bibbers no longer exist : 

 six bottle men have become as rare as the dodo. Still the 

 question remains, are stimulants a useful auxiliary to 

 intellectual work ? The opinions of medical men as to the 

 use of wine are too diverse to have much effect. Nor are 

 they in much better agreement as to tobacco. That 

 tobacco is a poison is certain ; so are many things we use, 

 not only in medicine, but in food. The influence of 

 tobacco on brainwork has been the subject of interminable 

 controversy, and the question has occupied all classes of 

 society. One argument is that smoke helps men to think 

 (to dream, rather), and it is asserted that the journalist 

 smokes in writing, the man of science in solving a problem, 

 the artist in painting, the clergyman in composing his 

 sermon; that, in fact, every man great in science, in 

 literature, in arts, climbs the ladder of fame with a pipe or 

 a cigar in his mouth. Tennyson has composed, it is said, 

 his sweetest idylls under the influence of nicotine. Carlyle 

 has taught the world philosophy, smoking. Not the young 

 only have these ideas. According to Andrew, Moltke is a 

 great snufT-takor, and it was due to snufl" [la prise, avrait 

 tmtt fait) that Napoleon was so pitilessly expelled from 

 Belgium. Mr. John C. Murray, in his volume on smoking, 

 undertakes to show when it is dangerous, neutral, or 



• What follows, np to Abbe Moigno's comrannication, is portly 

 an abstract, partly a tratitlation, of the version of Mr. Rcade's 

 cummanicatioii given in Les Mondes. 



beneficial to smoke. He claims that Raleigh, Milton, 

 Dryden, Newton, Picot (sic). Steel, Addison, Swift, 

 Congreve, Bolingbroke, Pope, Johnson, Byron, Burns, 

 Scott, Campbell, .Moore, Dickens, spoke, wrote, and sang 

 under the influence of coffee, that plant of mystic power. 

 But for those wlio have recourse to tobacco, he adds, their 

 genius is generally but a lightning-flash or a meteor, 

 involving too great mental tension, likely to drag reason 

 from her throne and plunge it in the night of chaos. 

 (By my troth, these are very bitter words.) Another 

 medical authority says that a moderate use of tobacco 

 is as necessary to the brain-worker as moderation in the 

 use of alcohol. 



On the other hand, the adversaries of tobacco regard 

 the idea that smoking helps sound thought as a most 

 mischievous delusion ; they maintain, on the contrary, that 

 it renders men incapable of intellectual labours. Tobacco 

 leads to physical and mental indolence. 



Mr. Reade considers that the use of stimulants is a 

 subject which should be examined in the light of the ex- 

 perience of poets, artists, journalists, men of science, 

 authors, itc, in Europe and America. 



M. TAbbe Moigno makes the following remarks in reply 

 to Mr. Arthur Reade's questions : — 



" Though I cannot offer myself as an example, because 

 my temperament is too exceptional, my experience may 

 have some degree of usefulness. 



" T have published already a hundred and fifty volumes, 

 small and great ; I scarcely ever leave my work-table ; I 

 never take walking exercise ; j et I have not yet experienced 

 any trace of headache, or brain-weariness, or constipation, 

 or any form of urinary trouble, <tc., ic. 



" Never, in order to work, or to obtain my full clearness 

 of mind, have I had occasion to take recourse to stimulants, 

 or coffee, or alcohol, or tobacco, ic. ; on the contrary, in 

 my case, stimulants excite abnormal vibrations in the 

 brain, unfavourable to its prompt and steady action (ej-er- 

 cice regulier). 



" Often during my life I have fallen into the habit of 

 taking snuff. It is a fatal practice ; foul to begin with, 

 since it puts a cautery to the nose, filth in the pocket 

 {unfinnier dans la poche) ; unwholesome also ; for he who 

 takes snuff finds each morning his no.se stopped up, liis 

 breathing diificult,'his voice raucous or with a nasal twang, 

 because the action of tobacco is, in reality, to draw 

 humours to the brain.; lastly, unfortunate {nifaste), because 

 the use of snuff gradually destroys the memory, — this last 

 effect being for me completely proved by my own experi- 

 ence and that of many others," 



Abbe Moigno then gives Ihe proof that- in this form, at 

 any rate — tobacco injures .the brain, but the account, which 

 is too long to be given here in full, and too interesting 

 to be abridged, must be reserved till next week, when 

 we shall give it, along with his most remarkable experience 

 of the effect of a wise r'ojime, on his powers and on his 

 health. We believe all our readers will be interested to 

 learn how this veteran scientific worker has accomplished 

 his long-continued and arduous labours, while yet retaining 

 not only good but wonderful health. 

 (To ht continKid.) 



HOW TO GET STRONG. 



FROM a much-valued correspondent, the following letter 

 has been received through the Editor : — 

 "Before you leave the subject of eliest expansion, I think 

 it worth while to notice what has been voucht>d for by too 

 many persons from personal experience to be dismissed 



