310 CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON. 



research into the metabolism of over 100 new-born infants has resulted in an 

 accumulation of sufficient data for definite conclusions. The infants were for 

 the most part obtained from the Boston Lying-in Hospital and a constant 

 routine was rigidly adhered to in all cases, so that the results are comparable. 

 Several hundred experimental periods were obtained. An analysis of the data 

 for the minimum metabolism periods shows that on the first day of life there 

 are important temperature regulation disturbances which result either in a 

 decreased metabolism, or an increased metabolism when there is an effort 

 on the part of the infant to compensate for the loss of heat. After the second 

 day there is a fair uniformity in the heat-production per square meter of body- 

 surface and a remarkable uniformity' per square meter of body-surface per 

 unit of length. This constancy is such as to permit the establishment of a 

 factor which indicates that when the square meter of body-surface, as com- 

 puted from the body- weight, is divided by the length, the metabolism per unit 

 is 12.65 calories. From a study of the effect of temperature changes on the 

 basal metabolism and the amount of available breast secretion in the first week 

 of life, certain procedures for the conservation of energy and supplemental 

 feeding are suggested. 



(20) Psychological effects of alcohol. An experimental investigation of the effects of 

 moderate doses of ethyl alcohol on a related group of neuro-muscular processes 

 in man. Raymond Dodge and Francis G. Benedict. Publication No. 232, 

 Carnegie Institution of Washington. (In press.) 



This first publication of results under the program of the Nutrition Labora- 

 tory for an exhaustive study with modern techniques of the physiological con- 

 sequences of the ingestion of moderate doses of ethyl alcohol in man deals \vith 

 its effects on the neuro-muscular tissues with especial reference to its effects 

 on mental processes. Responses from various levels of the nervous system 

 from the lumbar reflex centers of the cord to the association areas of the cere- 

 bral cortex were investigated by techniques which were carefully selected for 

 their objectivity and freedom from arbitrary interference as well as for their 

 accurate measurement of systematically related processes. These approved 

 techniques are carefully described; in connection with the accumulation of 

 normal measurements, they should provide a useful base-line for any future 

 study of experimental variations in the selected processes. The variations 

 from normal of these several measurements, after the ingestion of alcohol doses 

 of 30 c.c. and 45 c.c, respectively, give data for the nature and the comparative 

 incidence of the effects of alcohol on widely different levels of the nervous 

 system. 



Electro-cardiograms which were taken synchronously with the other meas- 

 urements give data for the effect of alcohol on the antagonistic heart-regulating 

 mechanisms in their adjustment to mental and physical activity. The cause 

 of a "relative acceleration" of the heart action under such circumstances was 

 found to be a depression of the inhibiting mechanism. 



The results of the measurements not only furnish a solution to many of the 

 outstanding problems of the psycho-physiological effects of alcohol, but they 

 also serve as a basis for interpreting some of the troublesome discrepancies 

 and apparent contradictions in less extensively correlated data, both scientific 

 and unscientific. In conjunction with the pulse data they supply presumptive 

 evidence of the effect of alcohol on organic efficiency. Since the effect of 

 alcohol on motor coordination was found to correlate closely with the average 

 of all the measured effects, the authors conclude that the modification of neural 

 coordination is a central and fundamental consequent to the ingestion of 

 alcohol and suggest that it may properly serve as the most readily accessible 

 indicator of individual susceptibility to alcohol. 



