At the 1948 Annual Meeting of the National Academy there was presented preliminary evidence indicating that each individual possesses what may be called a "metabolic personality"-that is, a distinctive pattern of metabolic traits.1 The existence of these distinctive patterns is established by analysis of body fluids and of physiological responses to chemical stimuli and is exemplified in figure 1. At the left is graphed, using polar co6rdinates, various metabolic traits of the "hypothetical average individual" whose every trait is the average of his fellows. At the right is graphed on the same scales the metabolic pattern of a typical real individual in which many traits vary widely from the average. This pattern is a relatively consistent one and is maintained for this individual at least over a period of several months.The hypothesis was set forth that the metabolic patterns of individuals are of great import in the lives of the individuals who possess them, not only with respect to susceptibility to disease, but also with respect to nutrition, sex, mental abilities and many other facets of their lives.Today we wish to present further and more specific evidence with respect to how these metabolic patterns are of moment in connection with the specific problem of alcoholism. This evidence is based primarily upon animal experimentation, the background of which is described elsewhere.2-4It should be noted at the outset that individual animals in an ordinary laboratory colony have distinctive metabolic traits just as do the members of a human population. In order to conserve space we will not present data to substantiate this statement. When such animals are placed in individual cages and are continuously given a choice between water and 10% alcohol (the positions of the two drinking bottles being switched daily), they exhibit individual patterns with respect to alcohol consumption. Some drink fairly heavily beginning perhaps the first day the alcohol is offered. At the other extreme, some continue to abstain for an indefinite period of time. Intermediate between these are those that drink very moderately for an indefinite period of time and those that drink very little at first but after a few weeks drink relatively heavily. Some individual animals exhibit a relatively steady consumption day after day; in others the consumnption fluctuates widely. (Figure 2) These individual patterns of alcohol consumption are genetically con-

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