404 WILSON GEE. 



the treatments with alcohol at these periods would certainly 

 be due in part to its effect on the nuclear material. The nature 

 of this effect one can little more than surmise. Alcohol has an 

 affinity for water, and would tend to remove this from the 

 protoplasm of the egg. On the other hand, it may act to alter 

 to some degree the actual chemical composition of the nuclear 

 material. 



One is led naturally to the position that in the case of the eggs 

 of other forms, perhaps even of mammals, similar critical periods 

 may exist. If so, this finding is an important one; for it may 

 be that sudden acute intoxication of the female parent about the 

 time of conception may lead to the abnormality of the resulting 

 embryo, or may even prevent the fertilization of the egg. There 

 are numerous instances cited to support such a view in medical 

 statistics. A somewhat different statement of the case is that 

 acute intoxication of the eggs at critical periods in their history 

 may act to prevent development altogether, or to render it 

 abnormal in a considerable proportion of cases. 



The spermatozoa show a surprising degree of resistance to 

 the action of alcohol solutions in both sea water and distilled 

 water. Treatments with the higher percentages of alcohol 

 yielded the best results. Here one could be reasonably sure that 

 one was injuring the spermatozoa; for they lived a much shorter 

 time in these concentrations than they do in pure sea water. 



While the results are not as clean cut in the experiments on 

 the sperm as in the case of the egg, there does seem to be in 

 several instances a definite injury to the sperm. In others the 

 action of the alcohol seems a selective one. Still the results here 

 are much complicated by the action of the treating reagent on 

 the egg prior and just subsequent to fertilization, even though 

 the greatest care was taken to closely control this factor. 



SUMMARY. 



1. The eggs of Fundulus heteroclitus are very susceptible to 

 injury from treatment with low concentrations of alcohol prior 

 to fertilization. This period seems an especially critical one in 

 the history of the egg. 



2. Two per cent, and five per cent, solutions of alcohol in sea 



