of the mind was to reproduce the next syllable in the memorized series.  The will-intention was then directed toward breaking this memory type.  For instance, it was demanded, when a syllable was called, that the subject should not answer with the next following syllable, but with a rhyming syllable.  This will-impulse easily succeeded when the syllables to be learned had been repeated only a few times, while after a very frequent repetition the memory connection offered a resistance which the simple will-intention could not break.  The syllable which followed in the series rushed to the mind before the intention to seek a rhyming syllable could be realized.  The number of repetitions thus became a measure for the power of the will.  After carrying out these experiments at first under normal conditions, they were repeated while the subjects were under the influence of exactly graded doses of alcohol.[46] From such simple tasks the experiment was turned to more and more complex ones of similar structure.  All together they showed clearly that the alcohol did not influence the ability to make the will effective and that the actual decrease of achievement results from a decrease in the ability to grasp the material.  As long as the alcohol doses are small, this feeling of decreased ability stirs up a reinforcement in the tension of the will-impulse.  This may go to such an extent that the increased will-effort not only compensates for the reduced understanding, but even over-compensates for it, producing an improvement in the mental work.  But as soon as the alcohol doses amount to about 100 cubic centimeters, the increased tension of the will is no longer sufficient to balance the paralyzing effect in the understanding.  Yet it must not be overlooked that in all these experiments only isolated will acts were in question which were separated from one another by pauses of rest.  Evidently, however, the technical laborer is more often in a situation in which not isolated impulses, but a continuous tension of the will is demanded.  How far such an uninterrupted will-function is affected by alcohol has not as yet been studied with the exact means of the experiment.

To be sure an obvious suggestion would be that the whole problem, as far as economics, and especially industry, are concerned, might be solved in a simpler way than by the performance of special psychological experiments, namely, by the complete elimination of alcohol itself from the life of the wage-earner.  The laboratory experiment which seems to demonstrate a reduction of objective achievement in the case of every important mental function merely supplements in exact language the appalling results indicated by criminal statistics, disease statistics, and inheritance statistics.  It seems as if the time had come when scientists could not with a good conscience suggest any other remedy than the merciless suppression of alcohol.  Indeed, there can be no doubt that alcohol is one of the worst enemies of civilized life, and it is therefore almost with regret that the scientist must acknowledge that all the psychological investigations, which have so often been misused in the partisan writings of prohibitionists, are not a sufficient basis to justify the demand for complete abstinence.