EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL ON GERM CELLS OF FUNDULUS. 381 



highly developed types. Reviews of the literature along this 

 line are readily accessible; so only the immediately applicable 

 part need be considered here. 



Dungay ('13) has made a study of the effects of heat, alcohol, 

 alkali and hydrochloric acid upon the spermatozoa of Nereis and 

 Arbacia. He finds that all of these agencies have an injurious 

 effect upon subsequent development in the eggs fertilized by the 

 treated spermatozoa. 



Oppermann ('13) has found that radium modifies the sperm of 

 the trout. His results very closely parallel those of Oscar and 

 Gunther Hertwig on the frog in that treatments of a more 

 limited nature serve to very profoundly modify the normal 

 processes of development, and to produce many abnormalities. 

 More extended treatment acted to so completely alter the 

 spermatozoon that it retained only its fertilizing power, the eggs 

 developing by a type of parthenogenesis. 



In the same year Gunther and Paula Hertwig ('13) report 

 that by treating the spermatozoa of Gobius jozo with 0.02 per cent, 

 and o.i per cent, methylen blue for an hour, marked abnormalities 

 occur in the development of normal eggs fertilized by spermatozoa 

 thus modified. However, treatment of the spermatozoa of the 

 same species for forty-five minutes with o.i per cent, solution of 

 methylen blue show r ed no effect on these spermatozoa when used to 

 fertilize the eggs of another fish, Crenilabrus pavo. This last fact 

 makes the results obtained seem somewhat contradictory in 

 nature. 



The experiments reported in this paper were performed at the 

 Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Mass., during the 

 summers of 1915 and 1916, and the writer wishes to express his 

 appreciation to the director, Professor F. R. Lillie, and the authori- 

 ties there for the facilities afforded him for the work. It is a 

 pleasure, too, to acknowledge his indebtedness to Professor 

 Charles R. Stockard for the suggestion of the problem and much 

 helpful interest in the progress of the work. 



MATERIAL AND METHODS. 



The grades of alcohol used were dilutions of absolute alcohol 

 of the best quality obtainable at the time. About half of the 



