250 PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL. 



EVIDENCE FOR ALCOHOLIC STIMULATION. 



There is in the scientific literature concerning the effect of alcohol a 

 large body of experimental evidence that, like the mass of common 

 non-experimental experience, seems to point to an initial neuro- 

 muscular excitation, resulting from small or moderate doses of alcohol 

 (school of Binz 1 ). Thus in excised muscles, the work of SchefTer 2 and of 

 F. S. Lee 3 and his collaborators seems to have demonstrated that a small 

 amount of alcohol "is capable of augmenting the work of a skeletal 

 muscle." Increased excitability after alcohol was found in frog nerves 

 (Mommsen, 4 Efron, 5 and Breyer 6 ) . The reinforcing action of alcohol on 

 the exhausted perfused heart may be regarded as demonstrated (Loeb, 7 

 Wood and Hoyt, 8 and Dixon 9 ). The reaction experiments by Krae- 

 pelin and various ergographic studies are commonly cited in support of 

 a short stimulatory effect of moderate doses on the central nervous 

 system. Evidence is not wanting, on the other hand, that much of 

 the augmenting effect of alcohol is really due to secondary or remote 

 effects (school of Schmiedeberg, 10 Bunge, 11 et al.). The most carefully 

 controlled ergographic work of Rivers 12 is entirely negative. In our 

 own material, the chief evidence for neuro-muscular excitation is found 

 in the latent time of the eye-reactions. They alone show consistent 

 improvement after the smaller dose of alcohol. In 4 out of 5 available 

 cases the result of alcohol was facilitation. The greatest individual 

 improvement was 15 per cent. The average improvement for the 

 group was 5 per cent. Similarly, for the psychopathies, 2 out of 3 

 cases show decrease in the latency of the eye-reaction as a result of 

 the smaller dose of alcohol. The facts are clear enough. It is no argu- 

 ment against them that they are unique in our experiments. But it 

 should not be forgotten that 15 c.c. more of alcohol, i. e., a dose of 45 c.c. 

 conditioned a delay in the eye-reaction three times greater than the 

 improvement produced by the smaller dose. The average result of 

 both alcohol doses on the eye-reactions is to lengthen their latency 

 about 5 per cent. 



But it would be unjust to our data and to our problem to consider 

 only the general average. Exceptions to a general tendency, provided 

 they are genuine, are theoretically as important as the generalization. 



, Grundziige der Arzneimittellehre, Berlin, 1901. 



2 Scheffer, Archiv f. exp. Path. u. Pharm., 1900, 44, p. 24. 



3 Lee and Salant, Am. Journ. Physiol., 1903, 8, p. 61; Lee and Levine, Am. Journ. Physiol., 

 1912, 30, p. 389. 



4 Mommsen, Virchow's Archiv, 1881, 83, p. 273. 



6 Efron, Archiv f. d. ges. Physiol., 1885, 36, p. 467. 



"Breyer, Archiv f. d. ges. Physiol., 1903, 99, p. 481. 



7 Loeb, Archiv f. exp. Path. u. Pharm., 1905, 52, p. 459. 



"Wood and Hoyt, Mem. Nat. Acad. of Sci. (pub. 1905), 1911, 10, p. 39. 



"Dixon, Journ. Physiol., 1907, 35, p. 346. 



10 Schmiedeberg, Grundriss der Pharmakologie, Leipsic, 1902. 



"Bunge, Lehrbuch der Physiologic des Menschen, Leipsic, 1905, 2d ed.; Die Alkoholfrage, 

 Leipsic, 1887. 



"Rivers, The Influence of Alcohol and other Drugs on Fatigue, London, 1908. 



