ADAPTATION AND IMMUNITY OF LOWER 

 ORGANISMS TO ETHYL ALCOHOL 



J. FRANK DANIEL 



A phenomenon of surpassing biological interest is the adjust- 

 ment of living substance to its surroundings. That living things 

 should so act as to promote their own welfare is indeed wonderful; 

 that such acts are common is evident on every hand. 



The darkened plant creeping toward the needed light, the arctic 

 hare at the approach of winter changing its coat of gray for one 

 of white, living tissue in battle against arsenic or alcohol or toxins 

 securing life against an amount perchance many times in excess 

 of the once fatal dose — these are phenomena in adjustment com- 

 mon to observation, yet of the utmost significance to the well- 

 being of the organism. 



Within recent years the study of these adjustments or adapta- 

 tions has received unusual attention. The subject of immunity 

 alone, developed especially by the schools of Ehrlich and Met- 

 chnikofF has within the past two decades almost attained the pro- 

 portions of a science within itself. 



Research in adaptation and immunity has been confined largely 

 to the higher forms of life. These because of their complexity, 

 offer many difficulties. A study even of an individual group of cells 

 in these, as for example the red blood corpuscles, has to take into 

 account a most complex medium — the blood stream. The pro- 

 tozoa on the other hand are comparatively simple and live in a 

 medium which is as a rule readily subject to control. Because 

 of these facts and for the added reason that a knowledge of the 



The Journal of Experimental Zoology, vol. vi, no. 4. 



