

Pulse and Respiration. 121 



mean variation of the pulse rate, meager as they are in comparison 

 with those collected by Dodge and Benedict, are directly in accord with 

 the findings 1 of those investigators in showing a decreased mean varia- 

 tion following alcohol. 



Taken as a whole, the pulse data where comparable in the two series 

 of experiments on Subject VI are in accord in every important detail. 



(1) There is normally, under such experimental conditions as those 

 employed, a gradual retardation of the pulse rate from period to 

 period throughout the experimental day, this retardation being less 

 prominent after alcohol; the alcohol pulse is therefore relatively faster. 

 Aside from the association pulse data of the first series, this subject 

 varied from the normal group in that he did not show so prominent a 

 retardation as the others. 



(2) The pulse rate after alcohol is absolutely faster, as the cycle 

 duration is actually shortened after the dose in comparison to that for 

 the pre-alcohol period of the same day. This is found in all of the 

 records taken in this series, with the exception of those during the 

 actual moments of tetanus. In Dodge and Benedict's table 42, page 

 230, where a summary of the average pulse differences is presented and 

 where a plus value means an absolute rise in pulse rate per minute, 

 Subject VI has an unduly large proportion of the plus signs. This 

 table gives data for 7 subjects; of the 43 plus signs occurring, Subject 

 VI has 16, or 37 per cent. 



(3) The effect of alcohol on the pulse rate is apparent in periods 2, 

 3, 4, 5, and 6, but in general is not conspicuously more prominent in any 

 one of these than in the others. There is no indication that the effect 

 had reached its limit at the end of the experimental day, which extended 

 4 hours after the ingestion of the alcohol. 



(4) The alcohol effect is greatest upon the pulse rate when the sub- 

 ject is resting quietly, there being an average increase of about 11 per 

 cent at such a time, as compared to an increase of about 7 per cent when 

 the subject is mildly active, as in sitting upright and reacting by speech. 



In interpreting the increased pulse rate, either relative or absolute, 

 after a dose of alcohol a question must be raised which Dodge and Bene- 

 dict did not consider and which can not be answered here, as it involves 

 further experimentation. With the possible exception of periods of 

 very severe muscular activity, an individual's pulse rate is generally 

 considered to be approximately a linear function of his metabolism, high 

 pulse rate being associated with a high total heat production and vice 

 versa. 2 The metabolism does not keep a dead level throughout the 



1 A correction should be made in Dodge and Benedict's table 44, p. 237, as follows: The data for 

 two genuflections, normal and alcohol, and 60 seconds after two genuflections, normal and alcohol, 

 are recorded under Subject IV, but should be placed one column to the right, that is, under Subject 

 VI. (See table 40, p. 217, in which the mean variation averages are first presented.) 



2 See Benedict and Carpenter, Carnegie Inst. Wash. Pub. No. 126, 1910, p. 248; Dodge and 

 Benedict's report, p. 253 ff., and other publications and articles from the Nutrition Laboratory; 

 also see Henderson and Prince, Am. Journ. Physiol., 1914, 35, p. 106; Murlin and Greer, Am. 

 Journ. Physiol., 1914, 33, p. 251, and Krogh and Lindhard, Journ. Physiol., 1917, 51, p. 182. 



