Cancer Susceptibility in Relation to Colour of Mice

Extract

An examination of some 10,000 tumour-bearing mice appertaining to 240 experiments comprising 24,000 animals has been made to find whether there was any difference in sensitiveness of the skin to our carcinogenic agents, according to colour of coat and eyes. Methods involving only elementary arithmetic have been utilised as we have, unfortunately, no statistical mind on our staff, and thus we have, presumably, failed to derive full benefit from the data available. We have ventured, however, to draw the following tentative conclusions as regards the particular animals under discussion, they being obtained from varied sources:

1. Self-coloured animals (excluding pure white) were more sensitive to petroleum oils (weak agents) than the corresponding piebald. (That is, a black was more sensitive than a black and white, etc.)

2. When tars (strong agents) were utilised instead of petroleum oils an opposite state of affairs existed, the self-coloured animal being more resistant than its piebald companion. This reversal may be explained on the grounds of cell tolerance.

3. Pink-eyed animals (excluding pure white) had a greater all-over sensitiveness of the skin to our agents than pigmented-eye animals.

4. On the whole the most sensitive animal was the pink-eyed fawn.

5. The frequency of hyaline degeneration of the spleen and marked thyroid enlargement was greater among pink-eyed animals, especially when fawn coloured, than among pigmented-eye animals.