606 
PSYCHOLOGY: DODGE AND BENEDICT 
social environment. The fundamental perseveration tendency was 
measured by the partial memorization of series of words. Sensory 
changes were indicated by Martin's Faradic-threshold measurements. 
Motor coordination was studied in the velocity and accuracy of eye- 
movements, and in the reciprocal innervation of the antagonistic muscles 
of the middle finger. Finally, pulse records (chiefly electrocardiograms 
from body leads) were taken either continuously or at homologous points 
in the various experimental processes. 
The subjects consisted of two groups: a main group of college gradu- 
ates who were very moderate users of alcohol, and a smaller group of 
out-patients of the Psychopathic Hospital who had been under treat- 
ment for delirium tremens. 
Normal base lines in all cases included two normal experimental days 
for each subject and for each kind of experiment. One normal day 
came before and one after the experimental days on which alcohol was 
administered. In addition a 'normal of the day' was recorded for each 
experimental process on the days in which alcohol was given. Tv/o 
alcohol doses were used, one containing approximately 30 cc. and the 
other 45 cc. of absolute alcohol. 
All the measurements show more or less rhythmic and arrhythmic 
variations. In our statistical theory we assumed that^ given a suffi- 
ciently large number of measurements, the normal rhythmic and arrhyth- 
mic variations will tend to compensate each other, leaving the average 
experimentally conditioned change relatively unaffected. In our data 
these average results show two particularly significant marks of reli- 
ability: (1) Similar processes are similarly affected and in similar degree. 
(2) In general the larger dose of alcohol shows the greater experimental 
effect. 
The effect of alcohol was calculated in all cases by comparing the 
differences between the 'normals of the day' and subsequent periods on 
the normal and on the alcohol days. The greatest percentile effect was 
found in the reflexes. In the patellar reflex alcohol increased the latent 
time 10% while it decreased the amount of quadriceps thickening 46%. 
In the protective hd-reflex it increased the latent time 7% while it 
decreased the extent of lid movement 19%. It increased the latent 
time of the eye-reactions 5% ; that of the speech reactions 3%. Memory 
and the free associations were only slightly affected. Sensitivity to 
Faradic stimulation decreased 14% after alcohol. The number of finger- 
movements decreased 9%; and the velocity of the eye-movements de- 
creased 11% as a consequence of the ingestion of alcohol. 
Quite in contrast to the general depression of the neuro-muscular 
