Factors Affecting the Reaction of Mice to Low Atmospheric Pressures. ∗

Abstract

Summary

Mice that had been permitted access to a mixed food before exposure to high tensions of oxygen with a subsequent sudden fall of total pressure to 70 mm were found much more likely to succumb to such treatment than were mice that had been deprived of food for a day. This effect of food was also observed after the administration of glucose, intragastrically or intraperi-toneally, but not after the intragastric administration of olive oil.

Mice not previously treated with high tensions of oxygen were nearly all killed by the sudden exposure to 70 mm pressure, but those that had been deprived of food did not show the marked congestion of the lungs that was observed in mice that had been fed a mixed food. Mice that had received glucose or starch showed this congestion, but those that had received xylose, olive oil, egg albumin, leucine, or sodium chloride did not.