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.”