NUTRITION LABORATORY. 267 



visited the station in May 1919, inspected the animals and equipment, 

 and advised as to methods of reaUmentation. His extensive experience 

 in similar researches with animals made his counsel of special value. 



STAFF NOTES. 



After several years' most efficient service as chemist of the Labora- 

 tory, Miss Elizabeth B. Babcock resigned on May 1, 1919. 



Following a number of years' service in the calorimetric work of the 

 Laboratory, Mr. Louis E. Emmes found it necessary to resign for a 

 permanent residence in the West, owing to illness in his family. 



INVESTIGATIONS IN PROGRESS. 



Distribution of alcohol in hens after exposure to alcohol-vapor. — A 

 research on the distribution and concentration of ethyl alcohol in the 

 tissue of hens after exposure to its vapor has been conducted by Dr. 

 T. M. Carpenter, with the cooperation of Miss E. B. Babcock. The 

 general procedure has been to place a hen in a chamber saturated with 

 alcohol-vapor for a given period, to kill the hen immediately at the 

 conclusion of the period, and to determine the alcohol in the various 

 tissues by the Nicloux method. Graphic registration of the activity 

 was secured and an attempt was made to determine the oxygen con- 

 sumption during the period. As results obtained in the early part of 

 the investigation indicated that the amount of alcohol remaining in the 

 body bore some relation to activity, a number of the hens were made 

 to increase their activity by means of periodic stimuli from an induc- 

 tion coil. 29 hens have been subjected to exposures to alcohol-vapor 

 varying from 2 to 29 hours in duration. In addition, two sets of 3 

 fowls were subjected to alcohol-vapor periodically from 4 to 6 hours a 

 day over several months to obtain information regarding the con- 

 centration in hens habituated to alcohol-vapor. Three dead hens were 

 also exposed under the same conditions as outlined for the purpose of 

 studying the role of diffusion in reference to distribution and con- 

 centration. A preliminary report of some of the data obtained was 

 given at the 1919 meeting of the American Federation of Biological 

 Societies. At the present writing it is planned to extend the research 

 to other animals and to include in the study the determination of the 

 alcohol utilized and the amount and character of the metabolism dur- 

 ing exposure. 



Acquisition of skill in pendulum-pursuit test. — While the pendulum- 

 pursuit test was originally designed to meet the needs of a simple test 

 of this nature for use with aviation candidates, it may be made a 

 general test of the hand-and-eye coordination. Before using this 

 method in other researches, it was desirable to obtain normal data 

 which would give Dr. Miles information on the range of individual 

 differences and the amount of improvement that might be expected 



