36 Effect of Alcohol on Psycho-Physiological Functions. 



mon footnote accompanying all of the Dodge and Benedict tables states 

 that "the values for the first period of the alcohol experiment were 

 obtained before the alcohol was given, and are therefore not included 

 in the averages/' whereas on normal days the values for the first period 

 of the day were included in the average. It is clear that the alcohol- 

 day average and the normal-day average would have been more strictly 

 comparable if the latter had also been computed without including the 

 first-period values. Wherever averages for the day are given in the 

 following tables, usually in the next to the last column, these aver- 

 ages always include only the values which follow the giving of the 

 alcohol dose or the control dose, that is, the above quoted footnote is 

 applied to all of the normal days as well as to the alcohol days. The 

 results of recomputing some of the Dodge and Benedict material on this 

 basis may be seen in Appendix III. (See p. 140.) 



In succeeding pages, where such terms and expressions as "inferior 

 functioning of processes," "less efficient performance," "depression," 

 and the like, are employed, it is assumed that these terms and their 

 opposites properly describe the changes and conditions found in these 

 neuro-muscular measurements. In the case of the respiration rate and 

 possibly of the reflexes this terminology may be open to question. 



DATA OBTAINED IN THE REPETITION MEASUREMENTS. 



In considering the effect of 30 c.c. of absolute alcohol upon some 

 neuro-muscular processes of the subject used in this research, the vari- 

 ous measurements used will be treated in the order in which they were 

 presented in the earlier publication, not necessarily in the order in 

 which they came in the experimental hour. (See p. 23.) It is not 

 needful to discuss here the availability, apparatus, technique, and 

 general experimental procedure for the different processes considered. 

 This report primarily concerns results. For a more detailed treatment 

 of the experimental methods than is given in the mere outline on pages 

 23 to 29, the reader must consult the full description of Dodge and 

 Benedict. Unless definitely stated to the contrary, the experimental 

 procedure was fundamentally the same as theirs. As this report 

 relates to a single subject and one who was thought to vary quite 

 widely from a supposedly normal group, certain features of the data 

 will call for discussion in a way that was not feasible in the earlier mono- 

 graph. So far as we know, this group of data, for the measurements 

 involved, is as extensive as any which has heretofore been collected for 

 one individual. Some attention should therefore be given to the nor- 

 mal values as such, aside from their comparison with the alcohol values. 



Fortunately, Dodge and Benedict have usually given separate aver- 

 ages for the different doses in their final statement of the effect of 

 alcohol; this facilitates comparison with the data obtained in the later 



