June 30, 1916] 



SCIENCE, 



909 



method of administration, i. e., by mouth 

 and by rectal enema, the time relations be- 

 tween the ingestion of alcohol and of vary- 

 ing foods as well as during fatigue, and the 

 importance of securing adequate controls or 

 base line measurements. This last point 

 was especially emphasized, for in an alcohol 

 investigation controls play as important a 

 role as do the alcohol experiments. 



A considerable part of the program is 

 given to the general field of physiology, 

 especially those factors which previous ex- 

 perience has shown might react more mark- 

 edly to alcohol dosage. Studies of the 

 respiration, digestion and secretion, metab- 

 olism, and the heat regulation are pro- 

 vided for. Finally, it was believed that 

 since in studies of the metabolism the sub- 

 jects would normally be under more or less 

 control as to diet and alcohol ingestion, 

 such investigations would provide an ex- 

 cellent opportunity for making simultane- 

 ous observations of the psychological ef- 

 fects of alcohol. A section of the program 

 was therefore devoted to a plan for this re- 

 search. The psychological part of the pro- 

 gram was prepared by Dr. Dodge. 



It is thus seen that the investigation to 

 be carried out by the Nutrition Laboratory 

 is based upon a carefully prepared pro- 

 gram which has been submitted for criti- 

 cism to a large number of individuals. 

 That it will undergo material modification 

 in the course of time is naturally to be ex- 

 pected, but with this program all com- 

 pleted researches may be correlated and 

 profitable lines suggested for immediate 

 attack. 



The material resources of the Nutrition 

 Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution of 

 Washington, located in Boston, made it 

 possible to commence upon this program 

 immediately. The equipment of the labo- 

 ratory includes several forms of respira- 

 tion chambers and respiration calorimeters. 



the latter being placed in a room specially 

 designed for studying heat measurements. 

 Of the calorimeters the one most used is 

 the bed calorimeter which was employed in 

 the prolonged fasting experiment recently 

 reported.^ It is with these calorimeters 

 that we expect to study many of the prob- 

 lems suggested in the tentative program. 

 A portable form of respiration apparatus 

 has also been developed and extensively 

 employed in studies of the basal metabolism 

 and in other researches in which the gas- 

 eous exchange is of special interest. At 

 times no less than four such pieces of appa- 

 ratus have been used simultaneously in the 

 large respiration calorimeter room. 



Without detailing further the equipment 

 of the laboratory which may be used in 

 the general study of the alcohol problem, 

 we may immediately turn our attention to 

 a specific discussion of the psychological 

 section of the alcohol program. As Dr. 

 Dodge was able to concentrate his entire 

 time for a year upon this part of the work 

 at the Nutrition Laboratory, sufficient data 

 have already been accumulated to justify 

 the publication of a monograph^ on this 

 phase of the subject. This work was car- 

 ried out at the Nutrition Laboratory chiefly 

 by Dr. Dodge and I should at this point 

 state that when I say ' ' we, ' ' I should more 

 properly say "Dr. Dodge." 



A special laboratory was prepared for 

 the purpose with darkened walls to facili- 

 tate photographic technique and fitted up 

 with psychological apparatus. The chief 

 items of equipment consist of a string gal- 

 vanometer and accessory apparatus, the 

 electrically-driven Blix-Sandstrom kymo- 

 graph, which is of general use, a complete 

 equipment for the determination of the 

 threshold for faradic stimulation (Martin 



2 Benedict, Carnegie Institution of Washington 

 Publication No. 203, 1915. 



3 Dodge and Benedict, Carnegie Institution of 

 Washington Publication No. 232, 1915. 



