134 Effect of Alcohol on Psycho-Physiological Functions. 



(2) It was shown (p. 54 ff.) that anticipatory voluntary lid movement 

 — another characteristic peculiar to Subject VI and one which was also 

 very troublesome in the eye-movement measurements — changed the 

 latency of the lid reflex, and that this factor happened to be so dis- 

 tributed as to markedly influence the earlier results and make this con- 

 flict probably accidental, although it must be noted that the average 

 differences for inferiority in the second series are small, +5.4 and +2.7 

 per cent, and an occasional change of sign under such circumstances 

 may be expected. 



(3) This subject, like the majority of others in the normal group, 

 showed a practice change in eye reactions. He had but one normal 

 day, which was the first for this test. The alcohol effect was therefore 

 hidden in the former reactions and quite overbalanced by the practice 

 change. 



(4) The differences opposite the heading " Pulse during muscular 

 tension" are not strictly comparable, as is explained on page 92. The 

 conflict is, however, not to be ignored. It is important to observe that 

 in the repetition experiments, in which the records were continuous 

 through rest, tension, and post-relaxation, the alcohol effect is on the 

 average very small during muscle tension, and, in fact, is +1.3 (a 

 slower pulse rate, the same as reported by Dodge and Benedict) in 

 period 2, where for most other measurements the maximum alcohol 

 effect occurs. A shorter pulse cycle during rest and a longer pulse 

 cycle (relative to preliminary periods or to normal days) during brief 

 periods of muscle tension are two phases of the same condition, viz, a 

 depressed vagus control of the heart. It is not possible at present to 

 state the time relations or the conditions which govern the appearance 

 and predominance of one or the other of these results. 



The resulting data from the repetition experiments with Subject VI 

 are the most complete thus far secured for any of the alcohol subjects 

 used at the Nutrition Laboratory. These data show that concerning 

 the nature of the alcohol effect this subject is not a physiological ex- 

 ception according to present normal standards, since in 27 out of 30 

 measurements inferior functioning of processes was discovered after the 

 ingestion of doses containing 30 c.c. of absolute alcohol. He does 

 show some individual peculiarities. Conspicuous among these is the 

 relatively 1 small effect on the reflexes. It is believed to have been 

 primarily this, with the added conditions that insufficient data were 

 obtained and that the differences from the reflexes made up a large pro- 

 portion (6) of the experimental results, which raised the question about 

 Subject VI in the minds of the former authors. 2 The two series of 

 observations on this subject are in agreement with 11 out of 16 meas- 

 urements which the former series contained. Analysis has proved that 



1 Relative to the normal group of subjects used by Dodge and Benedict. 



2 It is in connection with the patellar-reflex data that they give their long footnote concerning 

 VI (see Dodge and Benedict's report, p. 55). 



