20 
Another mouse of this series whose weight on the chloral diet had 
decreased from 26.6 to 19.27 grams also survived the injection of 
0.35 milligram per gram. 
Methyl alcohol. — A few experiments were performed in which the 
food was soaked in methyl alcohol. This alcohol, when continued 
for a short time, proved to be far more poisonous to mice than did 
ethyl alcohol, as has been sho^vu to be the case for other animals : ® no 
distinct increased susceptibility for acetonitrile was, however, noted. 
Hydrochloric acid, etc. — A munber of experiments were performed 
in which the food of the mice was soaked in 0.1 to 0.5 per cent hydro- 
chloric acid. There was usually a marked loss of weight but no 
increased susceptibility to acetonitrile ; on the contrary the resistance 
seemed to be increased. The feeding of potassium iodide, in doses 
sufficient to cause a marked loss of weight, increased, rather than 
decreased, the resistance to acetonitrile. A very large number of 
other substances (such as chloroform water, saccharine, sulphonal, 
thymol, tobacco, sodium benzoate and salicylate) were tried, but with 
negative results ; only certain proteid substances gave results similar 
to alcohol. 
Experiments with other cyanogen compounds. — A number of experi- 
ments were performed in which hydrocyanic acid and nitroprussiate 
of soda, sodium sulphocyanate, etc., were injected into mice which 
had been given alcohol for some time, the object being to see if the 
alcohol had caused a general lowering of resistance’^ which would 
cause them to succumb to a smaller dose than the one fatal to normal 
mice. The results were negative; the alcohol mice were not more 
susceptible to these poisons than were the normal ones. The following 
experiments with nitroprussiate of soda illustrate this point: 
Date. 
Weight of 
mouse. 
Remarks. 
Grams. 
July 25, 1904 
14.98 
5 per cent alcohol on oats. 
July 31, 1904 
Alcohol increased to 10 per cent. 
Alcohol increased to 15 per cent. 
August 6, 1904 
August 8. 1904 
14. 51 
August 13, 1904 
Alcohol increased to 20 per cent. 
August 15, 1904 
15. 22 
August 16, 1904 
Alcohol increased to 25 per cent. 
August 19, 1904 
15. 70 
August 24, 1904 
Alcohol increased to 30 per cent. 
August 31, 1904 
lb. 40 
September 1, 1904 
Alcohol increased to 35 per cent. 
October 5, 1904 
15. 95 
Xoy ember 3, 1904 
16.77 
0.168 milligi'am nitroprussiate of soda (0.01 
milligi-am per gram). Suryiyed. 
o- See Hunt: The toxicitv of methvl alcohol, The Johns Hopkins Hospital Bulletin, 
p. 213; 1902. 
