THE ACTION OF ALCOHOL 557 



in conversation, more witty, more social, more generous in 

 sentiment, but that he is not so careful in his statements, and 

 has not that consideration for his own position or that of others 

 which he ordinarily manifests. 



The normal adult, in an environment which in a child would 

 cause every symptom of exhilaration, maintains his self-control, 

 partly because the position has lost its novelty, that is, he has 

 associations which are wanting in the child, partly because the 

 exuberance and gesticulations natural to the child are kept in 

 check by his sense of the ridiculousness of these manifestations 

 in later years. Remove the inhibiting associations, destroy the 

 self-control of adult life, and the man becomes a child again 

 in his sense of exhilaration and symptoms of excitement. The 

 symptoms of intoxication which are ordinarily regarded as 

 indicating stimulation of the brain do not necessarily involve 

 this interpretation, but may be explained by a removal of those 

 associations which ordinarily inhibit the external manifestations 

 of emotion. 



In a word, it is generally recognised that some of the highest 

 functions of the brain are thrown out of action by alcohol 

 administered in quantities which induce the phase of exhilara- 

 tion. The further question is : What functions are actually 

 increased in activity, and how far is this increase dependent 

 upon the reduced activity of the processes which are depressed 

 by alcohol ? 



Much valuable evidence as to the effect of alcohol on mental 

 processes has been gathered in the psychological laboratories, 

 especially by Kraepelin and his pupils, who have subjected the 

 question to a large number of ingenious psychological tests. 

 Thus it is found that typesetters do a smaller amount of work 

 and make a much larger number of misprints when even a couple 

 of glasses of beer are allowed, than when they perform their 

 work without this drug. When a student was set to learn a 

 number of meaningless syllables or a row of figures, he took 

 a longer time to do so and made more errors in repeating 

 them under alcohol than normally. Similarly, arithmetical 

 calculations of all kinds were carried out much more slowly 

 and with more errors, and the writing was slower and gave the 

 impression of being that of an uneducated person who seldom 

 had occasion to use his pen. Only in one respect was any 

 increased aptitude shown — namely, in the transformation of 



36 



