706 
PSYCHOLOGY: W. R. MILES 
days, the first period of each day was also normal since the dose 
was not given until the beginning of the second period. Thus the first 
period values for each particular day serve to indicate the neural condi- 
tion of the different processes measured. In the results presented em- 
phasis is placed on the differences between the values obtained for the 
first period of the day and those obtained for succeeding periods of the 
same day as indicating the effect produced by the alcohol. To obtain 
the average difference for any particular day and any particular meas- 
urement, therefore, the value for the first period is deducted from the 
values for the succeeding periods, and the algebraic sum of the individ- 
ual differences is divided by the number of periods succeeding the taking 
of alcohol. Such a method, while seemingly indirect, presents the 
effects of alcohol in a less contaminated form than does the simple com- 
parison of the average values for the different days, as the experimental 
days are subject to changes in the level of nervous excitability. It 
cannot, however, be assumed that changes will not occur in the 5-hour 
period, although they are likely to be smaller than between different days. 
With this subject the effects of alcohol do not always retain one 
direction throughout the experimental day, for a depression during the 
the first two periods after taking alcohol may change to a facilitation 
during the last hour or more of the session. To average either the 
measurement values or the differences between the first and succeeding 
periods under these conditions would therefore mask important tend- 
encies. The results must be presented in a more analytic form. 
A summary of the findings for the different experimental periods 
following alcohol together with the comparable averages found by Dodge 
and Benedict both for their normal group and for Subject VI individ- 
ually are shown in table 1. The values given are the percentile effects 
of alcohol on the various processes in question, a plus showing increase 
and a minus decrease, which signs must be interpreted according to the 
nature of the measurement. Similar processes have been grouped in 
the table by sections. The first value in Period 2, Section 1, +3.4 shows 
that the patellar reflext latency (L', first reflex) was lengthened 3.4% in 
the first measurements made after taking alcohol as compared with the 
condition that existed in the period immediately after the taking of the 
control mixture. This lengthening of the reflex time was also present in 
the third and fourth experimental periods (+0.9 and +1.5) but not in so 
great a degree. In the fifth and sixth periods the sign changes, represent- 
ing a shortened reflex time. 
Since in the later series slightly more than 4 hours experimentation 
followed the drinking of the dose it is obvious that an average for Periods 
