GRAINS AND OTHER SEEDS Ist 
eaten the chit out of five other grains. It had also 
eaten fourteen grains of wheat and had eaten the chit 
of eleven others without injury. Several similar ex- 
periments were carried through with like results. 
Hence it seems safe to conclude that dry grains treated 
for several days with hydrocyanic acid gas of sufficient 
strength to destroy insect pests that may be in the 
grain will in no way poison the grain, and it may there- 
fore be used for food without injury. 
Damp seeds.—The damp seeds were soaked for 
twenty-four hours and then treated with gas in the 
same manner as in the preceding experiments and were 
kept in the gas for different periods of time varying 
from several hours to several days in the different ex- 
periments. Here, as in the germination experiments, 
we find that moisture has a decided influence upon 
the ability of the grains to absorb gas, 7.e., after soak- 
ing some corn and wheat for twenty-four hours in 
water and then leaving for forty-eight hours in the gas 
obtained from one gram of potasium cyanide per cubic 
foot, a mouse in apparently good health was given 
twelve grains of corn and thirty-six grains of wheat. 
The mouse began eating at once and ate the chit out 
of one kernel of corn and began eating a second ker- 
nel when he suddenly became stupid and was unable 
to walk without staggering. That the mouse was 
hungry is evidenced by the fact that it began eating as 
soon as the grain was placed in the cage and from the 
fact that it had been given but little food on the pre- 
ceding day for the purpose of having it hungry enough 
to begin at once on the grain as soon as it was removed 
from the gas. Although the mouse lived for several 
