ABSTRACT
Manifestly, my theme, the external pressures and forces which combine to mould and make, or break, a man and which determine the tone and texture of his conceptions, is of the most vital consequence. It is to this that I shall now direct my attention. There are four influences upon which I shall deliberate: opium eating, mesmerism, phrenology, and temperance, each of which, except the last, had a wide following amongst literary men and women.
