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There are numerous papers dealing with the effect of alcohol upon experimental infections, and it is rather generally agreed that infected intoxicated animals die sooner than similarly infected nonintoxicated controls. The manner in which alcohol lowers resistance has, however, not been satisfactorily explained. Numerous investigators have reported that alcohol inhibits phagocytosis but their experiments consisted in adding relatively enormous amounts of alcohol in vitro to the leucocyte-bacteria mixture. When small amounts of alcohol were used in such experiments there was no inhibition of phagocytosis.'The present experiments were carried out in order to determine whether alcoholic intoxication lowers the resistance to pneumococcal infection, and if so, to attempt to discover the mechanism by which it exerts its effect. It was decided at the outset to study the effect of intoxication on well-immunized animals in order that any resistance-lowering potentiality that might be present would be put to as severe a test as possible.Seventy-four rabbits have been used in the experiments here reported. In every experiment the procedure has )been to immunize a group of rabbits by intravenous injection of Type I antipneumococcal serum, to intoxicate some of them, and then to infect all of them and, in addition, intoxicated and non-intoxicated non-immune controls, with the same dose of virulent Type I gneumococci endermally.To produce intoxication 40 cc. of 20% ethyl alcohol was administered by stomach tube, smdler doses being repeated when necessary. The animals were maintained in a stuporous condition throughout the experiment. Blood cultures were made from all animals at intervals of several hours. The sites of infection were followed macroscopically throughout, and at the termination of the experiment they were removed for microscopic study. A typical protocol will be presented.Twelve rabbits were highly immunized by the intravenous injec-1 Parkinson, P. R., Lancet, 1909,2, 1580.by guest on July 26, 2015 ebm.sagepub.com Downloaded from

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