Abstract: Owing to the high room temperature in summer in the Wu-han area, it is difficult to carry out the bio-assay of digitalis using ether anesthetized pigeons according to the pharmacopeal method. The authors attempted to use non-anesthetized pigeons instead of the anesthetized ones. Parallel experiments were performed to compare the MLD of digitalis of Chinese National Standard on two groups of pigeons of 20 each. One group was not anesthetized, while another was ether-anesthetized. The results obtained showed that non-anesthetized group in the experiment gave a figure of coefficient of variation as 8.57%, while the other group as 13.45%. Therefore, the authors suggest that in the assay of digitalis non-anesthetized pigeons may be used.