can lead animals to avoid drinking it when it is later offered again (Belknap et al. 1978). Also, alcohol may be ingested simply because it provides calories (Rodgers et al. 1963). In addition, the role of ethanol metabolism must be considered. Thus, although hamsters drink great quantities of alcohol in preference tests, their rate of metabolism is also extraordinarily high, so the blood alcohol levels they achieve are quite modest (Blum et al. 1982). Early studies addressing these issues were nearly all conducted in two inbred mouse strains, the highly preferring C57BL/6 strain and the avoiding DBA/2 strain, and have been reviewed many times [for an excellent discussion of the early work, see (McClearn 1968)].
