FEEDING SUDAN III TO YOUNG ALBINO RATS 115 



or two. Thus in many instances I was obliged to give the 

 mother food free from Sudan III in order to keep ahve the young 

 rats which were depending on her. So far as these nursing fe- 

 male rats were concerned, the effect of Sudan III is similar to 

 that in young rats which have just been weaned ; that is, it arrests 

 growth and causes emaciation, curvature of the spine, rough 

 hair, etc. • No examination of the organs in the suckling young 

 has yet been made. It seems clear from this that Sudan III 

 is toxic to nursing females, as well as to their suckling young. 



It is of interest to note that extraction with ether shows a 

 small trace of Sudan III in the following organs : liver, pancreas, 

 lungs, and kidneys, but fails to show even a trace of Sudan III in 

 the brain, spleen, or heart. Corper ('12) demonstrated the pres- 

 ence of Sudan III in the liver, and often in the lungs, of guinea- 

 pigs, but always failed to find it in the brain, spleen, heart, testes, 

 or adrenals. Mendel and Daniels ('12, '13) found Sudan III in 

 the liver (four out of five cases), but never in the kidneys of the 

 rat. This discrepancy as to the presence of Sudan III in the 

 kidneys might be due to the fact that the rats used by the pres- 

 ent writer were young and were also heavily dosed. 



Highly interesting are the questions how Sudan III produces 

 such profound alterations in the growth of the body and organs 

 and how we are to explain the chemical alterations found in the 

 organs. 



R^iddle, who noticed a retardation of growth and the formation 

 of defective feathers in the chicks fed with Sudan III, considers 

 that the stained fat becomes less easily available to the organism 

 and thus Sudan III produces effects similar to simple starvation. 

 This question of the availability of stained fat was taken up by 

 Mendel and Daniels, who, however, combat Riddle's conclusions 

 and think that the stained fat is just as readily available as un- 

 stained. Although I have not made a special study on this point, 

 nevertiheless it seems clear that the alterations found in the test 

 rats cannot be explained, as merely the result of simple inanition, 

 as proposed by Riddle. A high degree of anaemia, fatty infil- 

 tration of the liver, as well as the nephritic condition, point 

 to pathological alterations rather than to the phenomenon of 

 simple inanition. 



