110 



Effect of Alcohol on Psycho-Physiological Functions. 



Table 19. — Effect of alcohol, as shown by differences, for pulse cycles preceding, during, and 



following tetanus. 



to respond in rate to the degree that would be expected; the per- 

 centage effects during the tetanus division as given in table 19 is for 

 period 2, +1.3, but in periods 3, 4, and 5 of the same division, the 

 pulse rate is faster after alcohol than normally, the percentage values 

 being respectively -4.0, -4.0, and -2.7. The percentages for the 

 tetanus division clearly indicate that the heart rate during muscular 

 activity, of the duration used in this experiment, is not increased in 

 proportion to the increase in the pre-tetanus pulse, during which the 

 subject was more or less relaxed. The same may be said of the per- 

 centages -2.5, -8.7, +2.5, and -1.2, average, -2.5, in the post- 

 tetanus division of table 19; that is, they do not show relatively so 

 great an increase in the pulse rate as do the results in the pre-tetanus 

 division. It seems probable that the alcohol effect is proportionately 

 reduced when the pulse rate is already fast and that this is another 

 indication that the alcohol affects the vagus and through it the heart 

 rate. Doubtless the lessened effect in this case is partly due to the 

 conditions in the first period of alcohol days in the post-tetanus division 

 when the rate was so surprisingly high. The alcohol effect is, in general, 

 about equally prominent in periods 2, 3, and 4, while period 5 shows it in 

 less degree. Dodge and Benedict (see p. 239 of their report) observed 

 that "the accelerating effect of muscular action is less after alcohol," 

 and the tetanus pulse-data substantiate this conclusion, since the change 

 in rate from pre-tetanus to tetanus is always less after the subject has 

 taken the alcohol dose. 



ADDITIONAL PULSE DATA. 



As was explained on page 24 in the outline of the experimental cycle, 

 the electro-cardiograms from body-leads were taken at the following 

 points in the experimental hour: (1) preceding the patellar-reflex meas- 

 urements with the subject resting; (2) following the patellar-reflex 

 measurements with the subject resting; (3) following the taking of the 

 faradic threshold with the subject resting; (4) before the word reaction 



