W.H.R.Rivers

“ The same amount of sleep must be taken every night, the meals must be of the same kind, and at the same times every day, the same amount of exercise must be taken, and the same amount of other work done. To do experimental work of this kind really satisfactorily means to most people that they must cut themselves off from many of the ordinary pursuits of life so long as the experiment last. ”

“ In my own case the fact that my occupation involves very different amounts of work on different days has made it impossible, as a general rule, to carry out any experimental work during term-time, and my own most satisfactory work has been done in the country, away from all possible sources of disturbance. ”

“ In the case of muscular work, the necessity for rigorous equality of the conditions of life is perhaps not so great as in the case of mental work; but here the more similar the conditions can be kept, the more likely is it that satisfactory results can be obtained. ”

“ The Action of Drugs Experiments on the actions of drugs in fatigue may be carried out by two methods. In one method a certain amount of work is done every day for several periods, each of a week or fortnight, or longer. During some periods the drug is taken every day, but not as such a time of the as to show its immediate effect on the work, while during the other periods there is complete abstention from the drug. By this method there is tested the influence on the capacity for work of the general condition produce by the ingestion of the drug. ”

“ If, in investigations on the effect of such a substance as alcohol in one accustomed to it, the use of the active substance is only given up shortly before the commencement of the experiments, there is a further danger. ”

“ One of the features of the work of untrained muscle is the occurrence of painful or unpleasant sensations; and since one of the definite problems in connexion with the effect of drugs on fatigue is how far they act through their influence on the sensations of fatigue, comarative work on trained and untrained muscle may be of great value. ”

“ It is my object in these lectures to consider the methods to be followed in the endeavour to ascertain the effects of those doses of drugs which are used either for dietetical or therapeutical purposes, and for such an object unequivocal results can only be expected if the conditions of life are kept as rigorously uniform as possible. ”

“ Even in those who only take such a substance in moderate amounts, its disuse is probably followed in some degree by the craving which is so pronounced after discontinuance of large amounts, and, slight and hardly noticeable as this craving may be, it may yet be sufficient to produce an obvious effect when the article of which the person has been deprived is administered experimentally. ”

“ Many of these workers have considered the possibility that their results may have been influenced by suggestion, or of bias towards results which were to be expected theoretically, and some have show that effects similar to those following the adminstration of a drug may be the consequence of the administration of a wholly inactive substance which is supposed by the subject to be the drug in question. ”

“ Some recent workers have insisted on the necessity for long-continued training before beginning to use ergographic curves as objects for scientific study, and one, Hellsten, training for many months before he began to study the action of drugs. ”