ALCOHOL AND HUMAN EFFICIENCY

To the Editor: —In connection with the editorial on "Alcohol and Human Efficiency" (The Journal, November 22), the following may be of interest: Gustav Aschaffenburg made experiments with type setters and published the results under the title, "Practical Work Under the Influence of Alcohol," in Psychologische Arbeiten, edited by Emil Kraepelin, Leipzig, Wilhelm Engelmann, 1896. He comes to these conclusions (p. 626): Even in the same occupation extending over many years, like type setting, there exists a not unimportant influence of practice. Moderate quantities of alcohol (36 to 40 gm.) diminished the working power. This influence was missed only once among eight experiments. It varied between 10.6 and 18.9 per cent., averaging 15.2 per cent, of the work which could have been expected, without fatigue and without loss of practice. Fatigue alone caused in the average only a loss of 6.5 per cent, of the expected amount of work. A