spontaneous daily movement of each dog with no indication as to its quality. Something to give a qualitative expression of strength, ability, and resistance to fatigue was devised, which consisted in a series of competitive tests at retrieving a ball.
Fig. 18. Curve of Efficiency (Competitive). In a difficult competitive test calling for endurance, sustained attention, etc., the alcoholic falls much lower relatively than in ordinary daily activity, Bum attaining to only thirty-two per cent of Nig's efficiency.
The balls were thrown in rapid succession across the university gymnasium, one hundred feet, and a record was kept of the dogs that started for it and of the one that succeeded in bringing it back. One hundred balls constituted a test, and to throw them consumed about fifty minutes.
In the first series, consisting of 1,400 balls thrown on successive days, January, 1896, the normal dogs retrieved 923, the alcoholics 478. This gives the alcoholics an efficiency of only 51·9 per cent as compared with the normals. Bum's ability in this series as compared with Nig's is only thirty-two per cent.[1] (See Fig. 18.) It was also noted that Bum and Tipsy were much more easily fatigued than the normals.
A second series, of 1,000 balls, November, 1896, in which Bum and Nig were tested, gave similar results. The various elements
- ↑ The results from Topsy and Tipsy were not comparable, on account of Topsy's condition at the time.
