EFFECTS OF INJURY UPON SPERM. 247 



the egg or upon the developing organism, the most desirable 

 evidence comes from cases in which the male germ cells alone 

 are exposed to the supposedly unfavorable conditions. 



Saleeby ('n) quotes Galton as having given the three following 

 cases. A man who had normal children became a drunkard 

 and his later children were all imbeciles. A healthy woman 

 who had by a drunken husband five sickly children who died in 

 infancy, later married a healthy man and produced normal 

 children. A man with two healthy children acquired the cocaine 

 habit and engendered two idiots. 



Schweighofer gives a case of a normal woman who had three 

 normal children by a sound man. She later married a drunkard. 

 Of the three children from this union one had infantilism, one 

 was a drunkard, and one was a degenerate. In a third marriage 

 she again bore healthy children. 



Paul ('60) tells of the children of lead workers. From 32 preg- 

 nancies, the father alone being exposed to the lead poisoning, 

 there resulted 12 abortions, stillbirths, and premature labors, 

 and 20 living births. Of the living 8 died during the first year, 

 4 during the second, and 5 during the third. Paul states that 

 the influence of the lead is as real as in the cases where the 

 mother is exposed, though perhaps the effects produced are not 

 so great. 



The observations quoted above are among the best on record. 

 Many other similar observations can be collected by anyone who 

 thinks it worth the time. A rather full bibliography is given 

 by Hoppe ('12). In the light of recent work these facts are very 

 interesting. Although in some cases the remarriage serves as a 

 control, the lack of data concerning the previous family histories 

 is a defect sufficiently serious to warrant us in questioning any 

 conclusions which may be drawn from these data alone. So far 

 as I have searched there are no observations upon man which 

 meet with rigorous scientific requirements. 



Elderton and Pearson ('10) conclude from the statistical 

 study of English school children that the offspring of alcoholic 

 parents are slightly brighter, heavier, and less diseased than those 

 of sober parents and that epilepsy and tuberculosis are of no more 

 frequent occurrence than among the children of non-alcoholics. 



