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(1967) reported from this laboratory that a unipolar p o s itively ionized atmosphere adversely affects the course of murine coccidioidomycosis produced by nasal instillation of measured numbers of a r t h r o s p o r e s of COCCIDIOIDES LMMITIS. Those mice exposed to a i r containing 3-4 x 105positive i o n s / c m 3 displayed an e a r l i e r onset and a consistently higher cumulative m o rtality rate than controls throughout a 30-day period of observation. The final differences in mortality rates were significant at p < 0. 025 by ehi square analysis.The observation that a flmgal disease initiated by the r e s p i r a t o r y route could be influenced by a i r ions led us to inquire whether pulmonary diseases of bacterial or viral origin would show a s i m i l a r effect. Accordingly, two models of pneumonia in mice were selected for experimentation: one produced by intranasal instillation of KLEBSIELLA PNEUMONIAE suspension and the second produced by s i m i l a r challenge with the PR8 strain of influenza virus. The resulting data are s u m m arized in the p r e s e n t paper and lead to the conclusion that positive a i r ions do indeed inimically affect bacterial and viral induced pneumonia in mice. M A T E R I A L S A N D M E T H O D SPNEUMONIA PRODUCED WITH BACTERIA THE ORGANISM: The A m e r i c a n Type Culture Collection strain of K . P N E U M O -NIAE, maintained at 37°C in shaker cultures of heart infusion broth, r e g u l a r l y produced a viable count of > 5 x 109/ml as measured in a Klett nephelometer. Dilutions in normal saline solution were plated to determine the viable count at the same time that a suitable dilution was selected for challenging mice.MICE: Seven-nine week penbred females of the NAMRU strain of m i c e w e r e fed Purina laboratory chow and water ad libitum. CHALLENGE: The mice were randomized and just p r i o r to infection w e r e anesthetized by exposure to vapor generated from a solution containing three v o l u m e s diethyl ether, two volumes chloroform, and one volume of ethyl alcohol. Challenge consisted of intranasal instillation of ca. 160 organisms in a volume of 0.05 ml. This produced m a s s i v e pneumonia and death in > 30% of untreated controls within eight days. CONDITIONS OF EXPOSURE TO IONS:These experiments were p e r f o r m e d in quarters at the Naval Biological Laboratory on the Naval Supply Center, Oakland, California, which at the time were supplied with a i r that was not pollutant-free; i . e . the only treatment was a medium efficiency filtration through a double thick-

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