258 PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL. 



produced without operative technique. But whatever may be found 

 to be the conditions, it seems to be of considerable theoretical and 

 practical importance that the lower reflex centers begin to recover from 

 the depressive action of moderate doses of alcohol while the disturbance 

 of the more complex coordinating centers is still increasing. 



It is an important psycho-physiological question whether alcohol 

 effects permanent residual modification of any neuro-muscular proc- 

 esses in the direction of the original disturbance or not; and if not, 

 whether the subsequent recovery just reaches the normal base-line or 

 crosses it. This question is directly related to the problem of tolerance, 

 increased susceptibility, and secondary reactions to the alcoholic dose. 

 It is also related to the theoretical question of the consequences incident 

 to the disturbance and the permeability of the limiting membrane of 

 the cell and the solution of lipoid substances (Meyer 1 and Overton 2 ) . 

 Minute permanent lesions, if they exist as the consequence of a small 

 dose of alcohol, could scarcely be detected by any available technique. 

 They would be swamped by uncontrollable accidental variations inci- 

 dent to other conditions of development and by the inevitable environ- 

 mental changes. That permanent anatomical and physiological 

 changes may and do follow long-continued use of even moderate doses 

 of alcohol seems to be supported by a mass of clinical and experimental 

 evidence. Such permanent changes, however, are certainly not uni- 

 formly in the direction of the immediate changes produced by alcohol. 

 Excessive patellar reflexes, for example, are not uncommon in confirmed 

 alcoholics. Unfortunately our experimental sessions did not last long 

 enough to follow any of the recovery processes to their base-line. This 

 is another of our unsolved problems. However, two indications in our 

 data are relevant. First, the refractoriness of the lid-reflexes is inversely 

 proportional to the decrease in the initial response after alcohol. In 

 view of the demonstrated relationship (Verworn 3 ) between refractori- 

 ness and fatigue, the depression of reflex processes as the result of alcohol 

 can not be regarded as due to exhaustion of available material, but 

 chiefly to a decrease in its immediate accessibility. The alcoholic 

 effect is, then, not due to exhaustion, but to decreased irritability. 

 It is consequently a plausible expectation that in all fatiguing experi- 

 mental processes the recovery after alcoholic depression should give 

 relatively better results than the normal values after a correspond- 

 ing period of relatively more fatiguing maximum responses. There 

 are indications in ergographic experiments that something of this 

 kind is true. In our own experiments, something of this sort was 

 found in the finger-movements. Even the fatigue of the 3-hour experi- 

 mental session without exhausting work may properly be expected to 



r, Archiv f. exp. Path. u. Pharm., 1899, 42, p. 109. 

 2 Overton, Studien iiber die Narkose, Jena, 1901. 

 3 Verworn, Erregung und Lahmung, Jena, 1914. 



