Elimination of Germ-cells 165 



treatment began, there was definite inheritance. At 

 this point, however, we must learn once more the 

 scientific lesson of caution, for in the fourth genera- 

 tion there was a marked improvement ! "The treated 

 side of this generation for the first half of its growth 

 curve is back in the fold with the first two genera- 

 tions. Later there is some response to the treatment 

 and a consequent dropping off in the curve." This is 

 a remarkable result. It suggests that some process of 

 germinal selection was at work, an alcoholic elimina- 

 tion of the inferior germ-cells. It also suggests 

 caution. 



Very careful experiments have been made on 

 guinea-pigs by Professor Charles R. Stockard. They 

 have been continued for thirteen vears, and more than 

 a hundred animals have been treated with fumes of 

 alcohol to the point of intoxication for six days per 

 week for various lengths of time. Several have been 

 treated for six years — a long life for a guinea-pig — 

 and some have lived to be seven years old, which 

 seems to be a record. This shows that the individual 

 guinea-pigs were none the worse as far as length of 

 life is concerned. On the other hand, the deteriorative 

 influence on immediate offspring and on later de- 

 scendants was well marked up to a certain point. The 

 deterioration was shown in weakness, short life, and 

 arrest of development, but there was no evidence of 

 the transmission of any particular character. There 

 can be little doubt that the alcohol, saturating 

 through the body of the parent, poisoned the germ- 

 cells along with the body, and affected the constitu- 



