Menlo Park N.J.
Sunday july 12 1885

Awakened at 8 15 AM. Powerful itching of my head, lots of white dry dandruff- what is this d–mnable material, Pertaps its the dust from the dry literary matter I’ve crowded into my noddle lately Its nomadic. gets all over my coat, must read about it in the Encyclopedia. Smoking too much makes me nervous– must lasso my natural tendency to aquire such habits– holding heavy cigar contantly in my mouth has deformed my upper lip, it has a sort of Havana curl. Arose at 9 oclock came down stairs expecting twas too late for breakfast– twas’nt. couldn’t eat much, nerves of stomach too nicotinny. The roots of tobacco plants must go clear through to hell. Satan’s principal agent Dyspepsia must have charge of this branch of the vegitable kingdom. — It has just occured to me that the brain may digest certain portions of food, say the etherial part, as well as the stomach — perhaps dandruff is the excreta of the mind– the quantity of this material being directly proportional to the amount of reading one indulges in. A book on German metaphysics would thus easily ruin a dress suit.