20 Effect of Alcohol on Psycho-Physiological Functions. 



Every effort was made to prevent the subject from distinguishing 

 between the alcohol and the control doses. Before giving the non- 

 alcohol mixture, the rim of the glass was swabbed with strong alcohol 

 that the odor might help to hide the identity during the early part of the 

 experiment. But as the alcohol frequently produced sensations of 

 warmth in the stomach and flatulency, the subject never failed to iden- 

 tify the mixture by the time the experimental session was over; that is, 

 his final impression was always correct as to its identity. He had no 

 way of knowing before the session what he would be given, and of 

 course he received no confirmatory information regarding his impres- 

 sions. As may be seen from the latter part of table 1, section n, his 

 more recent experience would not lead him to expect that normal and 

 alcohol days would regularly alternate. Unfortunately only the 30 c.c. 

 dose could be used in the second series. This was in accordance with 

 the expressed desire of the subject, who insisted that the 45 c.c. dose 

 which he had taken three times before (see table 1, section n) made him 

 feel uncomfortable for the rest of the day. The larger dose was more 

 than he was in the habit of taking, according to the data given on page 18. 



GENERAL EFFECTS OF THE ALCOHOL. 



It is of course recognized that the alcohol dose in these investigations 

 was a 20 per cent solution by volume of raw alcohol and water mixture, 

 strongly bitter, which was decidedly unpleasant to take. 1 Moreover, 

 the total amount was swallowed within one minute, the subject pre- 

 ferring to drink rapidly. The experiments of Dodge and Benedict 

 usually began about 4 p. m., the previous food having been taken 

 (except in the case of Subject X) nearly 3^ hours before, i. e., at 12 h 30 m 

 p. m. Under these conditions it is a fair question, and one that has 

 been asked since the publication of the earlier report, whether or not 

 the subjects experienced or showed any general effects which would be 

 interpreted as evidence of incipient intoxication, other than the results 

 given in the experimental measurements. As this matter has a bearing 

 upon the interpretation of both sets of results, the available material 

 for Subject VI is included here, while that for the other subjects is 

 given in Appendix II (see p. 138). 



Dodge and Benedict, in their original protocols, record the following 

 notes regarding the general effects of the alcohol upon Subject VI: 



October 7, 1913. No alcohol; no comments. 



October 14, 1913, dose A taken 5 h 12 m p. m. At 5 h 33 m p. m., subject sleepy; 

 6 h 10 m p. m., during faradic threshold measurement, subject falls asleep. 



1 Rivers, The influence of alcohol and other drugs on fatigue, London, 1908, p. 81. The use 

 of some common high-percentage alcoholic beverage would have been appreciated by the subject. 

 This would, however, have greatly reduced the possibility of a control dose resembling it closely 

 enough to cause any confusion to taste. Lange and Specht, Zeitschr. f. Pathopsychol., 1915, 

 3, p. 155, report that some of their subjects preferred to take the 40 c.c. of absolute alcohol as a 

 drink of 99 per cent alcohol rather than to dilute it with 100 c.c. of water and fruit juice. 



