EXPERIMENTS ON THE BEHAVIOR OF CHICKS 

 HATCHED FROM ALCOHOLIZED EGGS 



JOHN MADISON FLETCHER, EDWINA ABBOTT COWAN AND 



ADA HART ARLITT 



From the Callender Laboratory of Psychology and Education of H. Sophie 

 Newcomb Memorial College of Tulane University 



During 1912, in the Biological Laboratory of H. Sophie New- 

 comb College of Tulane University, experiments were carried 

 on relative to the effect of subjecting chicken eggs to alcohol- 

 ization before hatching. It was discovered possible to hatch 

 from eggs so treated chicks which were apparently of normal 

 physical structure. When a technique had been evolved which 

 attained this end the experiment was taken up and carried on 

 by the Department of Psychology in an attempt to discover 

 whether there was any characteristic modification of behavior 

 which could be attributed to the effect of the alcohol on chicks 

 hatched from alcoholized eggs. 



The experiments extended from October, 1913, to June, 1914, 

 and from March, 1915, to May, 1915. In the course of the 

 work five sets of eggs were hatched. The first, fourth and fifth 

 hatchings were from mixed stock; the second was in part pure 

 bred Buff Orpington and part pure bred White Leghorn and 

 the third was of Rhode Island Red stock. The eggs numbered 

 seventy in each hatching except the third, when only sixty eggs 

 were used. Of each of the first four sets of eggs twenty-five 

 were not tampered with. The remainder of the eggs, just before 

 being placed in the electric incubator, were treated in the fol- 

 lowing manner: A hole was made in the air chamber of the egg 

 with a dissecting needle. Into the air chamber was injected, 

 by means of a hypodermic needle, five drops of 95% ethyl 

 alcohol. In some cases the air chamber was found to be too 

 small to hold five drops so some eggs had less than five drops. 

 None had more. After the alcohol was in, the hole was sealed 

 with hot sealing wax. Of the last hatching of eggs ten were 



