DUI Tests 1927
TESTS FOR DRUNKENNESS
JUST HOW DRUNK must a man be to make him unsafe as a motorist? This is the problem that has been bothering British experts, as already noted in these columns.
The British Medical Journal (London) tells us that for several years public attention has been aroused by convictions of persons charged with drunkenness when driving a motor-car, and apprehension was caused by the fact that in some of these cases the decision of the magistrate was not sustained. In the autumn of 1925 the Association of Metropolitan Police Surgeons requested the British Medical Association, which is representative of all shades of professional opinion, to take the matter up, and a committee was appointed for the purpose, including two police magistrates. Says The Journal:
“It was well known that charges involving an allegation of drunkenness were made in the police courts in a large number of cases not connected with motor-cars. The Association was concerned in two aspects of the position which had arisen:
first, there was the diagnosis of drunkenness; secondly, the conflict of medical evidence. The committee had from the first to take into consideration the fact that the symptoms produced by alcohol, as by other toxic substances, vary in severity, according to the size of the dose, and, possibly, the susceptibility of the individual. The mere fact that it was proved, or admitted, that some alcoholic liquor had been taken a short time before the occurrence of the circumstances which led to the charge, was clearly insufficient.
“The committee studied the subject very thoroughly in all its aspects. It examined the tests in common use in this country to determine the fact that the accused person was ‘drunk,’ and came to the conclusion that there is no single symptom due to the consumption of alcohol which might not also be a sign of some other pathological condition. The committee attempted a definition of the word ‘drunk,’ which it considers ’should always be taken to mean that the person concerned was so much under the influence of alcohol as to have lost control of his faculties to such an extent as to render him unable to execute safely the occupation on which he was engaged at the material time.’ The advice to the medical practitioner called in to such cases is that in the absence of any pathological condition a person may be declared to be definitely under the influence of alcohol if there is a smell of it in the breath, but only provided certain concomitant signs or symptoms are observed—namely, a dry furred tongue or excessive salivation, irregularities in behavior, suffusion to the conjunctiva, coupled with an abnormal condition of the pupil, loss or confusion of memory, particularly for recent events, and of appreciation of time, hesitancy and thickness in speech, and tremors and errors of coordination and orientation.
“An interesting clinical observation which has been made by many police surgeons is that when alcohol in toxic quantity has been consumed the pupil reflex to ordinary light is absent, but that to a bright light the pupil will contract and remain contracted for an abnormally long time, indicating delayed reaction. The committee was not able to recommend the estimation, by analysis of the blood, urine, or cerebro-spinal fluid, of the amount of alcohol consumed. This is also the opinion of the Danish Medico-Legal Society, after consultation with the police. Such examinations are not practicable in the circumstance in which an allegation of drunkenness is ordinarily made. A medical decision must be reached within a short time, and the committee recommends that in ordinary cases any person accused of drunkenness should be able to rely upon being seen by a doctor, if he so desires, within half an hour of the time at which he is charged.
“After studying the procedure of the police in Great Britain, of the Royal Navy, and of the Army, and also in New Zealand, France, and the United States of America, the committee arrived at the conclusion that in order to obtain uniformity in the method of testing drunkenness some such form of certificate as that drawn up by the Danish Medico-Legal Society might with advantage be adopted when examining persons in this country.”
The Literary Digest for April 16, 1927
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