EFFECT OF ALCOHOL ON EFFICIENCY 157
After completing the dotting test, the subject tried
to reproduce related words of the list from memory.
As a mean of three sets of observations, one subject
made 42 errors in the dotting test and 7 errors in the
words; but § hour after a dose of 20 c.c. of alcohol,
the dotting errors rose to 130 and the word errors to
31. This considerable effect could not have been due
to suggestion, as the alcohol was taken in the form of a
disguised mixture.
GENERAL CONCLUSIONS.
The results of the observations described above, and
of numerous other investigations described elsewhere,*
indicate that alcohol is a sedative and narcotic drug,
which acts chiefly upon the nervous system. Indeed,
the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Central
Control Board concluded that it is very doubtful if
alcohol ever exerts even a small initial stimulating
action, as has sometimes been maintained. They
consider that * the direct effect of alcohol upon the
nervous system is in all stages and upon all parts of
the system, to depress or suspend its functions; that
it is, in short, from first to last, a narcotic drug.”
Alcohol appears to attack the highest nerve centres
first, and thereby it releases the inhibition which these
centres exert on the lower centres. The subject loses
his reticence, self-criticism, deliberation, and judg-
ment, and becomes self-confident and more free of
speech. This is most clearly seen when he is in
company with his fellows, but if he remains solitary in
* Cf. “ Alcohol: Its Action on the Human Organism,” and E. H.
Starling, ‘ The Action of Alcohol on Man.”