248 NEIL S. DUNGAY. 



They also record a higher mortality among the children of alco- 

 holics and conclude that the more resistant survive. The 

 publication of this paper has been followed by widespread criti- 

 cism. The details of the individual cases are not given. We do 

 not know what may be included under the terms "alcoholism" 

 and "intemperate." We should know the condition of the chil- 

 dren who were not in school, due perhaps to lack of ability or to 

 ill health, the relation of the time of conception to periods of 

 drunkenness, and whether the mother, the father, or both, were 

 alcoholics. In view of the lack of so much desirable evidence 

 and of the heterogeneity of the materials investigated it seems 

 that the question as to the general applicability of the conclusions 

 reached is at least an open one, the more so since the experi- 

 mental evidence seems to be directly opposed in most cases. 

 Additional light is given by the researches of Nicloux ('oo) 

 who proves that alcohol may reach the ovaries and testes of 

 mammals and that these organs take up considerable quantities 

 of the drug. Alcohol is also present in the seminal fluid very 

 shortly after it is taken into the stomach. Accordingly it seems 

 to be possible that the sperm cells may be injured. Bertholet's 

 work ('09) in a sense confirms that of Nicloux, since he finds that 

 testicular atrophy is common among alcoholics. His observa- 

 tions lead one to think that sterility should be much more com- 

 mon than it is among drunkards. 



There are a number of published observations upon the low r er 

 animals. Mairet and Combemal ('88) foumd that a dog treated 

 with absinthe for 8 months and paired with a normal female 

 gave 12 young. 2 were born dead and the others all died within 

 II weeks after birth. The small numbers and the lack of 

 adequate control make this experiment indecisive. 



Bardeen ('07) found that toad eggs, when fertilized by sperm 

 cells w r hich had been previously exposed to the X rays, developed 

 abnormally. Since the question involved is wider than the 

 alcohol question these results are significant. 



O. Hertwig ('10, 'n) and G. Hertwig ('12) obtained similar 

 results by the exposure of the sperm cells of various animals to 

 radium and also by injecting methylene blue into the dorsal lymph 

 sac of the male frog some days before the sperm cells were used to 



