118 Effect of Alcohol on Psycho-Physiological Functions. 



This condition with the pulse during finger movements was not found 

 with any other subject used by Dodge and Benedict, and a careful 

 search did not reveal that it was certain with Subject VI in the former 

 series of experiments. It must be observed, however, that Dodge and 

 Benedict employed their pulse-recording technique No. 2, that is, the 

 telephone pulse-recorder of Dodge with Subject VI. (See their report, 

 p. 189.) In fact, all of their records for him were obtained with the 

 telephone-recorder technique, except that of the normal electro-cardio- 

 gram taken at the beginning of the series of experiments. With the 

 Dodge telephone recorder, the pulse during finger movements usually 

 shows much disturbance and irregularity, and this irregularity is more 

 marked than when using body electrodes. It was a surprise to find 

 this to be the case, as one would think that the position of the body 

 electrodes, because of movements of the arms and fingers, would cause 

 other body currents to complicate the heart picture. On the other 

 hand, one would not expect very much jarring and shaking of the head 

 during the finger movements, but exactly this seems to have taken place 

 and the pulse curve is complicated by many other deflections, large and 

 small. This condition makes it impossible to compare the two groups 

 of records taken by the different techniques. The change in the elec- 

 trical axis of the heart which probably produced the condition under 

 discussion seems to bear no relation to the dose of alcohol and must be 

 regarded as without significance, aside from the fact that it made the 

 elaboration of the records somewhat more difficult. 



Since the pulse records taken during the finger movements showed 

 the peculiarity that at times even the R waves were absent, the records 

 could not be dealt with as with pulse records 1 to 7 inclusive, but indi- 

 vidual pulse cycles were measured as in the tetanus pulse and an aver- 

 age was taken for the measurable pulse cycles of each record. 



All of the available data for the pulse during the finger movements 

 are presented in table 22. This table is of the usual form, the results 

 being presented by periods, with three sections showing (i) duration, 

 (ii) differences, and (in) the effect of alcohol by differences and per- 

 centiles. The average duration of 925 <r for the normal days shown in 

 the next to the last column indicates that the pulse with the finger move- 

 ments is considerably faster than in conditions 1 to 7 previously dis- 

 cussed. The same is shown by the averages 906 and 861 <r for period 1 . 

 The latter value is for pre-alcohol and is noticeably shorter (faster 

 rate) than that for the normal group of days, a condition quite parallel 

 to that which existed for period 1 in the pulse during word reactions and 

 in the post-tetanus pulse. The change in the level of preliminary pulse 

 for the two groups of days does not favor the comparison by averages; 

 nevertheless the averages in the different periods show the following: 

 (1) a slight lengthening of the pulse from period to period throughout 

 the normal days; the durations from period 1 to period 6 are 906, 898, 



