A report1of several fatalities following the use of an "elixir" of sulfanilamide made with diethylene glycol prompts this preliminary abstract of a portion of the work in progress on the pharmacology and pathology of the glycols and related chemicals. Only two studies of the toxicity of diethylene glycol appear in the literature. Von Oettingen and Jirouch2found, using four mice, that the minimum lethal dose was approximately 5 cc. per kilogram of body weight when given subcutaneously. Haag and Ambrose3reported that the ingestion of the glycol in concentrations of 3 per cent and 10 per cent in drinking water was rapidly fatal to rats and that the minimum fatal dose for rabbits is 2 cc. intravenously. The vital organs of these animals were found to be essentially normal. EXPERIMENTAL WORK Diethylene glycol was administered to 107 young adult white rats and to twenty-six rabbits in