The Radiation Syndrome

IN EARLIER studies of radiation effects in mammals, dosages of 1000 r and above have generally been employed locally or over large areas of the body. Actually, when irradiation is given as a single total-body dosage, the quantity necessary to kill 50 per cent of the animals in thirty days or less is relatively small: 175 to 250 r for the guinea pig, 325 r for the dog, 350 r for the goat, 530 r for mice, 600 r for rats, and 800 r for rabbits.1 , 2 Where the LD50 for man lies is questionable, but it is probably somewhere . . .