In a previous investigation of the circulation time in normal and in schizophrenic subjects1 it was found that the psychotic group was characterized by abnormal slowing of the rate of blood flow. In a comparison of determinations made under basal and those made under nonbasal conditions on the same day, the schizophrenic patients showed less consistency between the two readings than the nonpsychotic subjects. As the conditions involving nonbasality may vary considerably among different persons, this conclusion must be stated with a certain degree of reservation. An investigation was planned, therefore, in which repeated determinations of the circulation time would be made solely under basal conditions in both groups of subjects, with the object of determining whether in this function, as in many others, the schizophrenic organism would evidence its characteristic variability.2
In the present study two determinations of the circulation time, with other physiologic processes, were made