908 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. ZLIII. No. 1122 



exists much speculation and a minimum of 

 verified facts. This condition should be re- 

 versed, and a great deal of hypothesis 

 which, for the most part, lies outside the 

 realm of probability, should be replaced 

 with a careful series of attested facts ob- 

 tained under conditions insuring the best 

 available technique, with a sufficient num- 

 ber of subjects and a multiplicity of obser- 

 vations accompanied by controls and nor- 

 mals. Such a procedure is outlined in the 

 program prepared by the Nutrition Labo- 

 ratory and submitted for criticism to over 

 400 physiologists, clinicians and psychol- 

 ogists a year or two ago. It is my purpose 

 this evening to bring to your attention this 

 program, its scope, its intentions, and more 

 specifically to present to you in brief ab- 

 stract the results of our first work on the 

 psychological phase of the alcohol problem. 



As the outcome of two extended foreign 

 tours, when the general subject of physio- 

 logical and psychological research on alco- 

 hol was discussed with many scientists, it 

 became evident that: 



1.- Alcohol investigations are, as a rule, 

 undertaken with diffidence, owing to the 

 fact that relatively few investigators can 

 afford the time or funds necessary to make 

 the observations sufficiently numerous and 

 extended to meet the stringent requirement 

 of critics who, while frequently unscien- 

 tific, are invariably captious. 



2. Objectivity in writing on the subject 

 of alcohol is as rare as uncontaminated 

 scientific evidence. 



3. Interpretations of the results of alco- 

 hol investigations made outside of the 

 source of experimental evidence have been 

 usually so confused by preconceived ideas 

 of the reader as to lead to the most diver- 

 gent interpretations of one and the same 

 collection of data. In general an interpre- 

 tation has been the resultant of scientific 

 record plus the personal, ethical opinions 



of the reader, with the last named factor 

 usually playing the controlling role. 



Perhaps these discouragements to vitaUy 

 needed abstract research on alcohol are 

 after all blessings in disguise; to meet the 

 demands of these adverse conditions tests 

 the mettle of both the experimenter and 

 the writer. 



The rapid advances in physiological re- 

 search, especially in the study of the energy 

 factors both by direct and by indirect calo- 

 rimetry, the availability of physiological in- 

 struments of precision, such as the string 

 galvanometer, sphygmomanometer, electri- 

 cal resistance recording thermometer, and 

 appliances for the study of muscular work 

 on an accurate basis, and an adequate tech- 

 nique for certain psycho-physiological ob- 

 servations made it seem feasible for the Nu- 

 trition Laboratory to begin a study of this 

 general question, with the idea of using its 

 resources and staff in such a manner as to 

 convince all but the most captious of critics 

 of the reliability of the data if not, indeed, 

 of the legitimacy of the interpretation of 

 results. To this end, and especially to se- 

 cure a working outline which will correlate 

 the immediate and later researches of all 

 laboratories, a somewhat detailed program 

 was planned. 



In this program for experimental re- 

 searches on alcohol the effect of only mod- 

 erate doses is considered, since the effect 

 of excessive doses with final complete 

 narcosis is obvious. The importance of such 

 a study of the influence of moderate 

 amounts of alcohol is brought out in the 

 introduction of the program. 



Furthermore, emphasis was laid upon 

 those points which in previous alcohol in- 

 vestigations had been most severely at- 

 tacked. Thus, particular attention was 

 given to the size of the dose, the character 

 of the subject experimented upon, the ques- 

 tion of repeated versus single doses, the 



