June 30, 1916] 



SCIENCE 



913 



sibility of giving irresponsible individuals 

 even the distasteful mixtures of alcohol and 

 water was not lightly to be regarded. "We 

 therefore decided that only those individ- 

 uals who were of legal age, and who were 

 college graduates, would be used. Conse- 

 quently we had approximately ten such 

 subjects and, through the kindness of Dr. 

 E. E. Southard, these were supplemented 

 by a group of three men from the Psycho- 

 pathic Hospital in Boston to give some in- 

 dication of the influence of previous exces- 

 sive use. Our final deductions were drawn 

 from an elaborate series of figures based 

 upon approximately 7 normal and 3 psycho- 

 pathic subjects, but by far the more exten- 

 sive series of tests was carried out with 

 the normal individuals. 



METHOD OP COMPUTATION 



At the outset it was emphasized that an 

 extended series of normal or control experi- 

 ments was absolutely essential. In fact, we 

 made approximately as many control ex- 

 periments as we did alcohol tests. This is 

 believed to be good practise as the question 

 of interest, fatigue and the invariably oc- 

 curring but unforeseen rhythmic and ar- 

 rhythmic changes throughout any given 

 experimental day must be counterbalanced 

 by control experiments of an extensive na- 

 ture. Consequently the general method of 

 experimentation was somewhat as foUows: 



First, the subject was given an entire 

 normal day (about 3 hours) without alco- 

 hol. Later this session was duplicated, 

 with a 30 e.c. dose of alcohol. At a third 

 session the dose was raised to 45 c.c. and 

 finally the series was concluded by another 

 control day. In addition to the control 

 tests at the beginning and end of the series, 

 the first period of each alcohol day was 

 given without alcohol, so that we have a 

 ' ' normal of the day, ' ' that is, the entire 

 group of measurements for that given day 



was carried out once before alcohol was 

 given and then subsequently alcohol was 

 administered. The series of observations 

 was repeated several times, depending upon 

 the length of session; usually there were 

 three and sometimes as many as six repeti- 

 tions on a single day. To allow for the nor- 

 mal daily change, which was invariably 

 noted in all repetition of sessions, we de- 

 ducted from the "normal of the day" the 

 values found in subsequent series of that 

 particular day; these differences were the 

 basis of our computation. A comparison 

 was then made of differences for the two 

 alcohol days with those for the two normal 

 days; the effect of alcohol was represented 

 by the difference found between the alcohol 

 and the normal days. The statistical treat- 

 ment of the subject gave us no little trouble ; 

 obviously the data permit of any other ad- 

 justment or rearrangement that statisti- 

 cians may deem advisable. 



RESULTS OF COMPUTATIONS 



Considering only the effect of alcohol 

 with the normal subjects, that is, the differ- 

 ence between the differences found on the 

 alcohol days and those found on the normal 

 days, we note that the latent time of the 

 patellar reflex was lengthened on the aver- 

 age about 10 per cent. In other words, 

 after the stimulus the response in the eon- 

 traction was delayed approximately 10 per 

 cent. The extent of muscle thickening was 

 enormously reduced, this reduction being, 

 on the average, 46 per cent. In fact this 

 diminution in the muscle thickening was 

 so great as to make it impracticable to con- 

 duet the experiment with most subjects 

 after giving the 45 c.c. dose. 



The second reflex studied, namely, the 

 protective lid reflex, showed that the latent 

 time was increased 7 per cent., while the ex- 

 tent of lid movement was decreased 19 per 

 cent., a picture perfectly comparable with 

 that of the patellar reflex. 



