48 DDT— Killer of Killers 



rats, who seem to resemble man rather closely in their reac- 

 tions to various disease organisms and poisons. There is no 

 point in reviewing the results of hundreds of experiments, 

 but let's take a typical one. A number of rats were given a 

 total of 1.2 grams of DDT in % gram doses per day over 

 a six-day period, and then were watched for six months 

 to see ii they would exhibit signs of poisoning. They did 

 not! In all respects they appeared perfealy normal. Now, 

 these rats weighed an average of 300 grams each, or % 

 pound. If a man could tolerate the same dosage in pro- 

 portion to his weight, then a 150-pound man could take 

 120 grams, or more than /4 pound, of DDT over a period 

 of six days without any ill effects. Or, to put it another 

 way, he could eat over 2"^ pounds of a 10% DDT dust. 



Or do you resemble a mouse more closely than you do a 

 rat? In that case, you will be more interested in the ex- 

 periments on four white mice, each weighing 10 grams, 

 which were fed 0.015 grams of DDT (0.003 grams per day 

 for five days ) . Thirty days later they appeared quite normal. 

 Again extrapolating to find out how a 150-pound man would 

 fare, we find that he could take 102 grams, or slightly less 

 than /4 pound, over five days and remain perfectly healthy. 



Since some folks are reputed to take after the cat, we 

 shall see what they might expect. ^ One cat was fed a total of 

 315 milligrams and another 480 milligrams in six different 

 doses, without any sign of poisoning. The experimenters, 

 however, neglected to report the weight of the cats. So we 

 scouted the neighborhood and picked up a typical alley cat, 

 and found that he weighed 10 pounds. Thus, 15 alley cats 

 are equivalent in weight to a 150-pound man. If one cat 

 can take 480 milligrams of DDT, a man should be able to 

 take 15 times that much, or 7,200 milligrams (7.2 grams; 



