§ Mr. Viantasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is the exact nature of the penicillin tests for which the Medical Research Council needs cats; and whether the experiments will be performed under anæsthesia or not.
§ Mr. H. MorrisonI have been asked to reply. There has been some misapprehension about the request for help in connection with the supply of cats, which was made to the National Farmers' Union with the authority of the Medical Research Council. These animals will be needed not specially for any penicillin research, but to assist British manufacturers of streptomycin to test the drug for freedom from its chief impurity, histamine. The tests are made under anæsthesia.