#stimulates

“And what,” I asked, “is your attitude toward alcohol?”

“Since prohibition was enacted I have not touched a drop, and long before that I gave up all other stimulants. I gave up alcohol, in spite of the fact that it was beneficial to me, in obedience to the law, and I find that I cannot now return to it. I had previously expected to live 150 years. Now that I have given up alcohol, I have reduced my expectancy of life to 135 years. In Yugoslavia, where I was born, alcoholic drinks are taken regularly with meals. That habit rarely leads to drunkenness.

“Alcohol has helped me a great deal in my life. It has made possible for me to escape from a strain which otherwise might have proved fatal. The man who is not an inventor cannot realize how powerfully the entire system may be affected by the discovery of a new truth. When I first saw my own invention, the induction motor, at work, my heart nearly gave out. Fortunately a bottle of brandy was near at hand of which I partook. This balanced my nervous excitement, and I was able to survey the rotation of the motor with philosophic poise

“I was strongly addicted to coffee, with the result that my heart was subjected to a dangerous over-strain. It took me eleven years to vanquish my craving for this pernicious drink. The cure cost me a good deal of money. For eleven years I had the finest coffee prepared for me at my table every day, and never touched a drop. Its presence aroused my powers of resistance. If it had not been there I would have suffered from the craving. I, at least, have found coffee and tea rank poisons.

“You have not,” I interrupted, “expressed your opinion on beer.”

“I have cared less for beer than for wine or brandy. As a young student I drank beer moderately, about sixteen seidels a day, whereas most of my fellow students consumed sixty. Beer gave me a katzenjammer [German: a hangover; a severe headache resulting from a hangover]. It is drunk in large quantities because for some reason it is easily absorbed. No one can drink twenty or thirty glasses of water or milk, but it is not difficult to drink thirty or forty glasses of beer. Owing to the large volume he consumes, the beer drinker absorbs more alcohol than the whiskey drinker. Moreover the tremendous amount of liquid which he gulps down enlarges his stomach and increases his girth. Some people seem to thrive on beer but they usually acquire enormous bellies."