EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL ON THE LIFE CYCLE OF 

 INFUSORIA. 



LORANDE LOSS WOODRUFF. 



So many investigations have been undertaken to determine the 

 effects of alcohol on the higher animals and with such varied 

 results, that it is of interest to determine its effect upon the lowest 

 and most generalized animal organisms, the Protozoa. As single- 

 celled animals these forms cannot fail to give results of impor- 

 tance from the point of view of general cell-physiology, and lead 

 to a clearer analysis of the primary effects of alcohol on metab- 

 olism. The Protozoa are particularly well fitted for cellular- 

 physiological study, not only because as single free-living cells 

 they lend themselves readily to experimental methods, but also 

 because no one function predominates at the expense of the rest, 

 and results obtained may reasonably be supposed to be due to 

 the effects of the stimulus in question on the general metabolism 

 of the cell. 



Hunt ^ recently made some interesting experiments on the 

 effect of small doses of alcohol on mice and guinea-pigs, and 

 found that animals to which alcohol has been administered for 

 some time acquire increased susceptibility to a definite poison 

 (acetonitrile), and reached the conclusion that this increase in 

 susceptibility is not due to a general " lowering of resistance," 

 but is associated with a distinctly increased power of the body to 

 break up the molecule of acetonitrile. 



Calkins and Lieb^ carried on some experiments with alcohol 

 on Paramcciiivi and found that "... alcohol has no effect when 

 taken in too weak doses, and too powerful an effect when taken 

 in over strong doses." "... when a medium dose is given (for 

 example 3 parts of 1/1,000 alcohol to 2 of hay, or i part of 



^ Reid Hunt, " Studies on Experimental Alcoholism," Bull. No. 33, Hyg. Lab., 

 U. S. Pub. Health and Mar.-Hosp. Serv., Washington, 1907. 



2 Gary N. Calkins and C. C. Lieb, " Studies on the Life-History of Protozoa, — IL 

 The Effects of Stimuli on the Life-Cycle of Paramecium caudatum,^'' Archiv fiir 

 Protistenkunde, 1 902. 



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