EXPERIMENTS WITH ALCOHOL 137 



used was practically the maximum possible under the condi- 

 tions of administration here employed. 



Regarding the immediate effect of the inhalation treatment of 

 birds with these poisons it may be said that in general our ex- 

 perience with fowls is quite similar to that of Stockard with 

 guinea-pigs. As a result of the daily handling, the treated 

 birds become very tame and learn their way from the tanks to 

 their pens so that when the tanks are opened at the end of the 

 treatment the birds go without any attention from anyone back 

 to the pen in which they live. Occasionally one of the birds 

 gets stagger}^ at the end of the treatment, but otherwise there 

 is little in the behavior or appearance of these birds to indicate 

 that they have undergone daily treatment for more than seven- 

 teen months. The effect of the vapor on the eyes of the birds 

 is somewhat similar, though not so marked in degree, as that 

 described by Stockard and Papanicolaou (38, p. 72) for guinea- 

 ]3igs. None of the hens has become totally bhnd, though the im- 

 mediate effect of the vapor in producing a milky secretion is 

 usually though ]iot always, observed. It seems surprising that no 

 more pronounced toxic effects from the methyl alcohol have 

 appeared, llie only explanation which I can suggest for 

 this is that since the individual daily doses are non-toxic an ac- 

 climatization has resulted in the course of continued treatment, 

 so that the surviving birds are very resistant to methyl alcohol 

 jioisoning. It is worthy of note in this connection that it is 

 the two more directly toxic substances used, methyl alcohol 

 and ether, with respect to which our two tank accidents have 

 happened, resulting in the death of the birds. More extended 

 and precise data on the effects of the substances on the general 

 physiological economy of the treated birds will be given in the 

 second paper in the series. 



In regard to the general en\'ironmental conditions under 

 which the experiments were carried out it may be said that these 

 birds were fed, housed and managed according to methods 

 which long experience in poultry work at this Station has 

 shown to be excellently adapted to the preservation of the 

 health and the maintenance of the physiological ^'igoi' of poul- 



