102 Effect of Alcohol on Psycho-Physiological Functions. 



ting that the first full pulse cycle after the beginning of " muscular 

 work" is shortened in duration and that this decrease in pulse-length 

 continues progressively for several cycles following. 1 The dip in the 

 curve immediately after tetanus and the secondary rise which follows 

 have not been observed in any other published data. In the curves of 

 Bowen 2 and Aulo, 3 to quote the former: "Upon the cessation of work the 

 pulse rate falls in a manner precisely similar to its primary rise (at the 

 beginning of work) ; very rapid at first, gradually diminishing in rapid- 

 ity as it continues, and finally returning to the normal rate." In their 

 researches, however, longer periods of work or exertion were employed, 

 the shortest reported being 60 seconds as compared to the 5 or 6 seconds 

 used here. This is not the place to present the data, but some unpub- 

 lished records on other subjects clearly show that after such short peri- 

 ods of muscular tension the pulse rate does not fall in the manner desig- 

 nated by Bowen. The rate remains high for several beats, sometimes 

 exceeding that during the tetanus, and the fall is more gradual than the 

 primary rise, as shown in figure 12. Although no sinus arrhythmia is 

 sensibly present in this subject, doubtless a respiration phase influences 

 to some extent the pulse duration, as there is a natural tendency to 

 exhale immediately following the tetanus. 4 As the pulse is normally 

 retarded during expiration, this would account perhaps in slight part for 

 the drop in the curve immediately following tetanus, but occasionally, 

 at this point, a particularly long cycle would occur (as illustration see 

 A, fig. 11). Extra systoles were never found present with this subject. 



The curve for the average of all homologous pulse cycles measured 

 after the ingestion of alcohol (see the broken line in fig. 12) follows, in 

 general, the same form as that for normal days. It is, however, at 

 every point on a higher level than the normal curve, conspicuously so in 

 the periods for pre-tetanus and post-tetanus, the latter period showing 

 a pulse rate which is well above that during the tetanus section, 88 

 beats as compared to 83 beats per minute. Although both curves are 

 from data which do not include the first-period values and are therefore 

 wholly comparable as alcohol and non-alcohol averages, the difference 

 in level of the two curves must not be uncritically accepted as entirely 

 due to the alcohol ingested. Averages, although seemingly comparable , 

 are sometimes misleading; the data should be considered by days and 

 by periods, the difference being noted between the normal of the day and 

 the succeeding experimental hours. 



In the first place, we need to know if the difference in level between 

 the normal and alcohol curves shown in figure 12 is due to the influence 



1 Bowen records that in one case the pulse rate steadily continued to increase for a period of 4 

 minutes after starting vigorous work on a bicycle. 



2 Bowen, Contributions to Medical Research dedicated to Victor Clarence Vaughn, June 1903, 

 p. 462, Ann Arbor, Mich. 



3 Aulo, Skand. Archiv f. Physiol., 1911, 25, p. 347. 



4 See figure 11, p. 96; a rise in the respiration curve denotes expiration. See also Appendix 

 IV, p. 143. 



