The effects of varying doses of ethanol injected IP on body temperature and the linear elimination rate were determined in long-sleep (LS) and short-sleep (SS) and C57BL6 mice. As the ethanol dose was increased, decreases in body temperature and rate of ethanol elimination were detected in all three mouse stocks. The correlation coefficients between body temperature and ethanol elimination rate were 0.74, 0.82, and 0.75 for the LS, SS, and C57BL mice, respectively. The SS eliminated ethanol more quickly than did the LS at most ethanol doses but if elimination rates at equal body temperatures were measured the two mouse lines did not differ in elimination rate. The temperatures of C57BL mice were also modified by pretreating them with graded doses of phenobarbital or DFP 1 hr before injection with a 1 g/kg ethanol dose. These treatments resulted in graded decreases in body temperature and an attendant decrease in ethanol elimination rate with correlation coefficients of 0.82 for phenobarbital-treated and 0.85 for DFP-treated animals. Lastly, the hypothermia elicited by a 5 g/kg dose of DFP was prevented by incubating the animals at 37 degrees C. This treatment almost completely prevented the effects of this dose of DFP on ethanol elimination rate. These results demonstrate that body temperature influences the rate of ethanol elimination. Therefore, studies of ethanol elimination rate should take body temperature into account when attempting to measure parameters such as metabolic tolerance.