PUBLISHED QUARTERLY BY THE AMERICAN ISSUE PUBLISHING COMPANY AT WESTERVILLE, OHIO. PLEASE REMIT BY POSTOFFICE OR EXPRESS MONEY ORDER, DRAFT ON NEW YORK OR BOSTON, OR BY REGISTERED LETTER NUMBER FIVE TEMPERANCE JOURNAL MAY, 1917 VOLUME XXVI ALCOHOL AND WORK OF PRECISION At the Physiological Laboratory of the University of Helsingfors, Finland Needle threading was used by Totterman to test the effect of the daily use of small quantities of alcohol on mechanical work requiring precision. The amount of alcohol taken (25 ccm.) was small, being equivalent to that in a little more than a pint of 4 per cent beer (17.5 oz.). Although the alcohol was taken eleven hours before beginning the test work, within four days the total number of needles that could be threaded daily fell off, while on the non-alcohol days the number of needles threaded increased from day to day. The diagram shows the results graphically. In the second group of alcohol days the decrease in the work done appeared on the second day and was more through the whole group than in the first alcohol group. The experimenter suggests that this may indicate that some effects of the alcohol taken during the first group of alcohol days may have lasted over the intervening nonalcohol days, making the worker more susceptible to its effects when the alcohol was resumed. A greater sense of fatigue was felt on the alcohol days, and, as is usual in experiments of this kind, the experimenter found that on the alcohol days he was unable to judge correctly as to his efficiency. D URING the last decade it has been clearly shown by many experiments that alcohol, if not taken in too small quantities, largely diminishes our vitality and power to do mental as well as physical work. It has also been shown that with the use of alcohol continued for several days, even in cases where a very small percentage of alcohol has been used, the effect has been very obstructive to mental work, and this result has been marked, not only immediately after the taking of the alcohol, but also after a time, when the direct results are supposed to have disappeared. The first person to point out this fact was A. Smith.* The experiments were carried on with two persons, one of whom for several years had been a total abstainer, while the other at the time of the experiment was in the habit of using alcoholic liquor. These experiments consisted of addition of figures in single columns, readings to be memorized, and associations of ideas. The experiments were tried out in several series, in some of which alcohol This report is translated from Finska Läkaresällskapets Handlingar. Oct., 1916. Acknowledgments in connection with the translation are due to Mr. H. P. Paulson. was not used; in others from 40 to 80 gr. of alcohol were taken daily. The alcohol was taken in the evening during the alcohol period, while the test was performed the following morning. The results of these experiments show clearly that the use of alcoholic liquor for several days at a time lowers the ability to do the mental experiments referred to even as early as the third day after beginning to take the alcohol. The results of these experiments were fully verified later by experiments of Kurz and Kraepelin. If, under such circumstances, very small doses of alcohol, taken for a few days, will reduce to a great extent the individual power for mental work, it seemed to me but reasonable to believe that the power to do mechanical work should be affected in the same manner. Still, as far as I know, no direct experiments have ever been published to show this to be a fact, while anything along that line would be of both theoretical and practical value and interest. The following experiments suggested by Dr. Carl Tigerstedt during the physiological exercises in the fall of 1915 were done to prove to what extent regular use of alcohol in small quantities would affect the individual power for mechanical work involving precision. The Kind of Work Tested The work selected for an experiment of this kind was the threading of sewing needles. This work may seem simple enough, but it is particularly hard if the thread is coarse in comparison with the diameter of the eye of the needle. It takes a high grade of co-ordination upon which alcohol may seem likely to have a harmful effect. The author of this article was himself the experimenter. The argument against the results of the experiment may be that they were more or less dependent upon the previous opinion of the author in regard to the ill effect of alcohol. In regard to this argument I will say that although a total abstainer for the six months before beginning this experiment, I have, however, no personal aversion to alcohol and I do not particularly see any objection to a temperate use of it. Add to this the fact that at the time when my experiments were performed I had very little knowledge of results of earlier experiments in regard to the effects of alcohol on the physical functions of the body. My experiments covered a period of 43 days, from November 15 to December 27, 1915. The first 14 days no alcohol was taken; then came 10 alcohol days; then nine days without alcohol; finally another group of 10 days when alcohol was used. During this experiment very strict conditions otherwise were observed. No tobacco was used. During the alcohol days 100 ccm. of 25 per cent alcohol (about five-sixths of an ounce) were taken at 11 o'clock p. m. The tests took place on the following day at 10 o'clock a. m. Hence on the alcohol days, they were performed 11 hours after the alcohol was taken and at a time when its immediate effects had disappeared. Preparations for the Tests The plan of the experiment was that for a period of 20 minutes I should thread as many needles as possible. In preparation, 200 needles were stuck in a cushion from which they could easily be taken one at a time. The thread was cut in 20 cm. lengths and the pieces laid on a board so that the end of the thread came a few centimeters over the edge of the board. To avoid taking several threads from the board at the same time, thus causing them to tangle, a ruler was laid across the threads. Before me was a paper on which I threw the needles after they were threaded. Every five minutes by a simple movement of the hand, I laid a new piece of paper over the threaded needles. By so doing I was able later when counting the results to get not only the total results, but also the separate results for the four periods of five minutes each. A number 6 needle, length 40 mm., and diameter at the thick end twothirds mm., was used for this experiment. The length of the eye of the needle was nine-tenths mm., the breadth one-third mm. The thread was white sewing thread number 36, one-third mm. thick. Before each test the ends of the threads were freshly cut and during the time of the experiments there were new threads used several times. It might be thought that the use of a needle with a smaller eye would, perhaps, have made it possible to more easily detect the result of the alcohol (the smaller the eye, the more precise the hand that threaded it had to be), but the advantage of this had its disadvantage, viz., that the least rough ness at the end of the thread would greatly hinder the operation. Results in the First Non Alcohol Period The results of my experiments may be seen in the diagram. The register of my efforts may be followed in Tables I-IV. An examination of Table I shows that the working ability increased by training day by day. On the first day, only 103 needles were threaded, but on the second and third days there were 150 and 165 needles, re The effect of alcohol on the ability to do work of precision. Days when no alcohol was taken, white; alcohol days, black. The vertical line of numbers signifies the number of needles. The work of each five- minute period during the 20 minutes can be seen accordingly. spectively. The following days showed a further increase until a maximum of 188 needles was threaded on the 12th day. The 13th and 14th days were less good, 185 and 184 respectively. Dexterity vs. Fatigue One might suppose that in such exacting experiments the results would be largest in the first five-minute period, and slowly diminish through fatigue during the other three periods. This, however, was not the case; it is clearly shown that the maximum was attained in the second period. The difference between the results in the first and second five-minute periods is, however, slight, on an average, 1.8 needles in 14 experiments. The reason for the increase during the second period may be found in the fact that during the first five minutes' work the increased dexterity surpassed the inevitable fatigue. A different condition existed during the last two periods, the fatigue increased more than the ability, and the result was a decrease in the working power. While the results during the last two periods average 42.1 and 41.0 respectively, only during one test (fourth day) TABLE I. WORK WITHOUT ALCOHOL where the result increased in the two last periods, and on another (the seventh day) did I maintain the work at the same point during the third and fourth periods as during the second period. Decrease Appears on the Alcohol Days As has been stated before, during the alcohol days only 25 gr. of alcohol per day were taken, and the experiment showed, as might have been expected, that if a result was to appear it would not come until the consumption of alcohol had gone on for some time. During the first 10 alcohol days (Table II) the total result increased in |