349 



there is nothing under the sun more calculated to lessen a man's stock 

 of cash than backing horses, or to diminish his stock of vitality and 

 manhood than "tippling." 



As ia the case of not backing horses, exalted principles of morality 

 are not the cause of my abstaining from drink in the daytmie. I 

 simply dislike the taste of all intoKicants before dinner, and I know to 

 indulge in them is highly pernicious to health. There is, however, no 

 man who enjoys his liquor much more thin I do at dinner, nor a 

 judicious continuance of the supply from that hour until bedtime. In 

 fact, as I often ,say, I am a teetotaller for some twenty hours out of the 

 twenty-four. I also proclaim the fact that although I don't drink 

 before dinner I do so plentifully every day of my life before breakfast 

 [i.e , afiej' dinner /]. 



A source of great annoyance to me is the fashion which has of late 

 years crept in — that of coffee and cigars immediately after dinner. In 

 they come just as I am about to tackle a bottle of prime claret or old 

 "beeswing." This to me pernicious habit has been contracted from 

 various sources. Men travel now so much on the Continent where 

 drinking wine after dinner was never the custom, they have got broken 

 off the good old fashion. Then the late hour dinner is now served at» 

 and the length of time it takes owing to the number of courses, gives 

 men sufficient time to drink what they want at dinner, and leaves little 

 time to do so after ; besides, owing to their drinking a good deal before 

 they are not able for much during or after dinner. Another factor 

 in the matter is whisky having taken the place of wine on our dinner 

 tables as much as it has done of late years. For my part I heartily 

 condemn the causes and the effect. 



A story is told of the celebrated Dr. Abernethy that upon a patient 

 coming to him with a disordered constitution, the result of improper 

 mixtures of food and eating too often — a fact the patient could not be 

 persuaded of — the doctor, wishing to try an experiment, asked his 

 patient to dine with him. There was for dinner but ordinary fare, 

 but the host told the servant to put into a large bowl an equal 

 quantity of everything the guest eat and drank, and just before his 

 leaving to mix together the whole mass. As the patient was about 

 taking his departure Dr. Abernethy expressed his hope that he liked 

 the humble fare provided, it being so much inferior to that he was 

 accustomed to. The guest replied that for a plain homely dinner it 

 was very good indeed. The doctor then showed him the contents of 

 the bow), telling him what the servant had done, and that the contents 

 of the bowl represented precisely those of his stomach ! So horriHed 

 was the man at seeing claret and coffee, soup and sirloin, sauce and 

 champagne, cutlets and cream, fish and fruit, all mixed up in an 

 abominable mass, that ever after he dined upon the plainest food he 

 could get and took that seldom and sparingly, with the result that his 

 constitution was thoroughly restored to health and vigour. 



The above reminds me to caution my readers against taking cofFte 



