14 
Other mice of this series died from 0.22 and 0.24, while one recovered 
from 0.18 milligram per gram body weight. 
Control mice, namely, those which had been kept on water and 
oats, recovered from 0.4, 0.45, 0.5, milligram per gram, but one died 
from 0.55 milligram. Thus the alcohol mice succumbed to one-half 
to one-third the dose necessary to kill the controls. 
Similar results were obtained in a number of other such experiments 
upon both white and gray mice. In no case did the mice show any 
symptoms of intoxication or any ill effects at all from the alcohol. 
There were only insignificant changes in weight, no greater than those 
in the controls, and the changes which did occur were as often in the 
direction of an increase as of a decrease. 
The following experiments show in a striking manner how the sus- 
ceptibility of mice may be increased by the feeding of alcohol. In 
the first experiment the mouse had been kept for four months in a 
small jar on a diet of oats soaked in water; its weight had remained 
practically unchanged throughout this period. At the end of this 
period acetonitrile, 0.5 milligram per gram body weight, was injected. 
The mouse recovered. It was then placed upon oats soaked in 
alcohol, the per cent of which was gradually increased to 45 per cent. 
After a little more than a month of this diet, 0.2 milligram acetonitrile 
per gram body weight proved fatal. The weight of the mouse had 
remained practically constant throughout this period. Control mice, 
which had received oats in water, recovered from 0.4 and 0.5 milli- 
gram per gram.® 
In other experiments of tliis series, mice which had recovered from 
0.4 and 0.5 milligram acetonitrile died, after six weeks of alcohol 
(during which they had maintained their body weight and had 
remained very active), from 0.23 and 0.27 milligram acetonitrile per 
gram body weight. 
In another series mice which had been closely confined and kept on 
an oats diet for several months, and which had acquired a marked 
resistance to the poison, recovered from 0.7 to 0.8 milligram per gram; 
one after six weeks of the alcohol diet died from 0.4 milligram per 
gram, whereas the control (which had been kept on water) recovered 
from 0.8 milligram. 
In other experiments of this character, in which similar results were 
obtained, the mice had lost some weight on the alcohol diet, and it was 
thought that this might have been a factor in their increased suscepti- 
bility. It will be shown below, however, that it is possible to reduce 
the weight of mice very considerably without causing any such 
increased susceptibility. In the following experiment the loss of weight 
was accompanied by a very marked increased resistance to the poison. 
In these experiments the mice were fed for some time upon a very 
« It is very probable that these amounts were considerably less than the fatal dose, 
for it was found that mice kept in a small jar where they could obtain but little exer- 
cise, and on a diet of oats, became very tolerant for acetonitrile. This point will be 
referred to again. 
