As a result of this study, neurological mutations arising spontaneously on this background were kept on it while many others were placed on it. Because of its high alcohol preference, this strain has been used by some researchers to examine the mode of inheritance and the effects of alcohol on mice of different ages.
Blacks are also one of the oldest inbred strains.
Sometime after 1900 Lathrop began raising small animals, including a waltzing mouse, as pets. Although initially she planned only to raise two or three hundred, she began receiving orders for hundreds of mice from research institutions, and her business expanded. Many of the mice used, for example, in the coat color experiments conducted while Little was an undergraduate at Harvard came from Lathrop. To start this strain, Little bred female mouse number 57 to male mouse number 52. The result was a black mouse soon designated C57 black.