164 Influence of Alcohol 



recorded by Dr. F. B. Hansom. He made them inhale 

 alcohol fumes in an air-tight tank, and he kept care- 

 ful watch on four generations. Brother and sister 

 "controls" were started, they and their descendants 

 were reared in normal conditions, and precautions 

 were taken to exclude every difference except that the 

 one set breathed normally while the other set inhaled 

 alcohol. The members of the first generation were 

 treated for a whole year from the age of sixteen days, 

 which covers the period of the rat's most rapid 

 growth. Measurements of weight and length were 

 taken every ten days, and the treated were compared 

 with the "controls." There was no observable differ- 

 ence. Hence it cannot be said that the narcotic influ- 

 ence of the alcoholic inhalations had any effect on the 

 growth of the rats. Similarly the treated offspring of 

 the treated parents were indistinguishable from their 

 first cousins, the untreated offspring of the untreated 

 parents ! 



In the third generation, however, a difference 

 showed itself. At an age of twenty days, prior to the 

 first treatment, the members of the treated lineage 

 showed themselves inferior, in body weight, body 

 length, and tail length, when compared with their 

 counterparts on the untreated line. When treatment 

 began the difference increased, as if the animals were 

 responding to the alcohol with a new susceptibility. It 

 reached a maximum of nearly ten times the probable 

 error. The natural inference at this stage would have 

 been that the previous generations of alcoholism were 

 telling, and that, as the effects were observable before 



