•_>(>! ALBERT M. REESE 



or less; on the other occasion the animal refused food for the 

 rest of the afternoon, about three hours. 



The seventh animal on one occasion snapped at the meat 

 immediately after being returned to the water; at another time 

 it snapped at the meat within an hour of the time of appli- 

 cation of the cocaine to its nostrils. 



The eighth animal snapped at the meat a little more than 

 half an hour after applying the cocaine to its nostrils. 



Two other animals that were tried in the same way snapped 

 at the meat within half an hour after being returned to the water. 



Four animals in which a wad of raw cotton saturated with 

 5% cocaine was held in the mouth for three full minutes, were 

 all thrown into such a state of coma that they were thought 

 to be dead; one of these recovered in about an hour; the others 

 required two hours to regain their usual activity. 



Of two other animals in which the cotton with the 5 % cocaine 

 was kept in the mouth for one-half minute, one refused meat 

 for the rest of the afternoon, about an hour, while the other 

 snapped at the meat in less than half an hour. 



While these experiments are not altogether satisfactory, it 

 will be noticed that the cocaine introduced into the mouth 

 inhibited in every case except one, the feeding reaction for 

 an hour or more, and the shorter time in the exceptional case 

 may have been due to the fact that the cotton was not kept in 

 the animal's mouth long enough. 



Whether the inhibition was due to the effect of the cocaine 

 upon the nerves, or whether it was merely due to the general 

 effect upon the animal as a whole, it is difficult to say, but the 

 serious state into which several of the animals were thrown 

 by too prolonged action of the cocaine, as described above, 

 would seem to point to some general disturbance of the system 

 that might incidentally inhibit the feeding reaction. 



The application of the cocaine to the nostrils caused, as might 

 be expected, a much more temporary inhibition of the feeding 

 response, the failure to react to meat seldom lasting for more 

 than half an hour, and in many cases the reaction was delayed 

 an even shorter time. Just how much of the cocaine solution 

 would penetrate the nasal chamber through the tiny external 

 nares, it is impossible to determine, possibly very little. 



Judging from the relative lengths of the inhibited periods, 



