An expression of Buchner's-"No thinking without phosphorus" 1 - has gained an unhappy notoriety. Strictly speaking, it is a groundless assumption, for we cannot say that intellectual being may not exist joined to any form of matter, or quite independent of matter. We certainly do not know enough of the subject to lay down such a negative statement. And if it be held to mean that the amount of phosphorus passing through the body bears a proportion to the intensity of thought, it is simply a misstatement. A captive lion, tiger, leopard, or hare assimilates and parts with a greater amount of phosphorus than a hard-thinking man, while a beaver, noted for its powers of contrivance, excretes so little phosphorus that chemical analysis cannot find it in the excreta. All that the physiologist is justified in asserting is that, for the mind to energize in a living body, that body must be kept living up to a certain standard, and that for the continuous renewal of life a supply of phosphatic salts is required. The same may be said with equal justice of water, fat, nitrogen, chloride of sodium, oxygen, etc. The phosphates are wanted indeed, but wanted by pinches, whereas water is required by pailfuls. A few days without water, or a few minutes without oxygen, will terminate the train of consciousness. The practical points taught us by physiology are that, for the integrity of thought, integrity of the nervous tissue is requisite; and for the integrity of the nervous tissue, a due quantity of such food as contains digestible phosphatic salts.

1 " Ohne Phosphor kein Gedanke," " Kraft und Stoff;" section 122.

The most perfect regimen for the healthy exercise of thought is such as would be advised for a growing boy-viz., frequent small supplies of easily-soluble mixed food, so as to furnish the greatest quantity of nutriment without overloading the stomach, or running the risk of generating morbid half-assimilated products. For it is essential to the intellectual direction of the nervous system that it should not be oppressed by physical impediments. The presence in the stomach or blood of imperfectly assimilated nutriment impedes its functions in close proportion to their amount, so that not only the constituents, but the mode of administering food, must come into the calculation. "Repletus venter non studet libenter" is an old proverb, the application of which saves many a brain and many a stomach from being worked against the grain. Rest from brain-work for twenty minutes before meals, entire abstinence from it during meals, and rest again till the weight has passed from the stomach, are essential to the reconcilement of psychical exertion with bodily health.

The physiology of the action of alcohol has a very important bearing on the physical management of the mental functions. Alcohol has the power of curbing, arresting, and suspending all the manifestations of the nervous system, so that we feel its influence on our thoughts sooner than on any other part of the system. Sometimes it brings them more completely under our command, controls and steadies them; more often it confuses or disconnects them, and then breaks off our power over them altogether. When a man has tired himself by intellectual exertion, a moderate quantity of alcoholic stimulant taken with food acts as an anaesthetic, stays the wear of the system which is going on, and allows the nerve-force to be turned to the due digestion of the meal. But it must be followed by rest from toil, and is in essence a part of the same treatment which includes rest-it is an artificial rest. To continue to labor, and at the same time to take an anaesthetic, is a physiological inconsistency. The drug merely blunts the useful feeling of weariness, and prevents it from acting as a warning. There is no habit more fatal to a lit-16 erary man than that of taking stimulants between meals; the vital powers go on wearing out more and more, without their cry for help being perceived, and in the end break down irrevocably.

As to quantity, the appetite for solid food is the safest guide. If a better dinner or supper is eaten when it is accompanied by a certain amount of fermented liquor, that is the amount most suitable; if a worse, then an excess is committed, however little be taken.

The aim of the diet should be (to quote the words of John Milton) "to preserve the body's health and hardness, to render lightsome, clear, and not lumpish obedience to the mind, to the cause of religion and our country's liberty, when it shall require from hearts in sound bodies to stand and cover their stations."

It is especially when the mind of genius is overshadowed by the dark clouds of threatened insanity, of hypochondriasis, or of hysteria, that a rational mode of life preserves it. Nothing but daily exercise, temperate meals, and a punctual observance of regular hours of rest and study, could have kept burning the flickering reason in poor Cowper.

As regards the proper quantity of alcohol that may be used, the two following questions naturally occur: How is a man to know when he has had enough ? and what are the signs of too much ? The ancients used to wear dark-red or purple engraved gems, which they considered preservatives against excess, and called them auedvorai-"sober-stones," "amethysts." The name is now limited to the violet rock-crystal, but in early times it was applied to several other stones, cut in intaglio, and worn on the fingers at festive gatherings. So long as the wearer could decipher the minute works of art they bore, he had not reached excess. A more delicate test still is the appreciation of temperature by the skin; if a draught does not chill, if a hot room fails to produce the usual discomfort, the wise man knows he has exceeded and must stop at once. In short, the safest rule is that, when there is a consciousness of any psychical effect at all beyond that of satisfaction at the relief of bodily weariness-such a satisfaction as is felt on taking a good meal by a vigorous person-then the limits of moderation have been attained. On ordinary occasions of daily life, and "for the stomach's sake," no more should be taken. Each fresh drop is a step downward to the evil results of alcohol. But to the practiser of daily temperance, festive occasions are safe and may be beneficial. A man may, from time to time, keep up without harm the above-mentioned sense of satisfaction by good and digestible wine in good company, without fear of getting drunk or failure of health, if he makes it a law to himself to stop as soon as he experiences any hurry of ideas or indistinctness of the senses.