210 



PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL. 



course of the pulse in homologous periods of the first and second 

 normal days shows that the retardation is slightly less in the second 

 normal day, period for period, than it is in the first. The second normal 

 day, moreover, shows a somewhat less regular retardation than the 

 first. Period for period, the alcohol days show less retardation than 

 the normal. As between the different doses of alcohol, the larger dose 

 shows less retardation in homologous periods than the smaller. 



TABLE 3ft. Differences between the average pulse-length of the first and of each succeeding period. 



[Values given in thousandths of a second.] 



In estimating the degree of probability of these results, it should be 

 remembered that they are based on the measurement of over 12,000 

 pulse-cycles for each subject, except Subjects X and VI. The large 

 number of data, the consistency of the results, and then- direct corre- 

 spondence to the size of the dose satisfy, we believe, the most rigid 

 criteria of experimental evidence for a causal relationship between the 

 ingestion of small doses of alcohol and a relative acceleration of the pulse 

 during the moderate mental activity of the association experiments. 



It is worth inquiring further whether there is evidence that the rela- 

 tive acceleration has reached its climax within the experimental session. 

 A comparison of the effects of alcohol on the differences (table 39) shows 

 that there is a regularly increasing relative acceleration after dose A 



