


1901] EFFECT OF HYDROCYANIC ACID GAS 261 
injurious to animal life. Grain was subjected to gas of different 
strengths and for longer or shorter periods of time, varying from 
one to sixty days. Grains thus treated were from time to time 
fed to mice that had been caught without injury and placed in 
glass cages so that they could be observed constantly. The 
cages were provided with an abundant supply of air and water 
and kept at ordinary normal temperature of the laboratory 
where the mice had been living previous to the beginning of the 
experiment. Occasionally the mice began eating the grains as 
soon as they were placed within reach, but as a rule several 
minutes to several hours elapsed between the time the grains 
were taken from the hydrocyanic acid gas and the time they 
were eaten by the mice, thus giving time for any gas that remained 
in contact with the seed or that had penetrated the seed coat to 
escape into the atmosphere. In one instance, for example, a 
mouse was fed one dozen kernels of corn and three dozen grains 
of wheat that had been for four and one fourth days in an 
atmosphere containing gas from one gram of potassium cyanid 
per cubic foot. The mouse began eating the grain at once, and 
at the end of twenty-four hours had eaten the whole of five 
grains of corn and had eaten the chit out of five other grains. 
It had also eaten fourteen grains of wheat and had eaten the 
chit out of eleven others with no pathological results. Several 
similar experiments 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 
affect animal life, and may therefore 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. 
Here as in the germination experiments we find that moisture 
has a decided influence upon the susceptibility of the grains 
to the gas. For example: after some corn and wheat had 
