228 MUTATIONS 



the Mormons, who constitute a sizable group, and it might be possible 

 to make comparative studies with other groups in the same com- 

 munities, where other conditions would be roughly similar. 



I would also say that the idea of asking how much coffee the 

 grandfather drank is not as absurd as it seems, because of the finding 

 that coffee-drinking habits are stable in individuals and perhaps also 

 in families. A person who knew his grandfather at all knows if his 

 grandfather was a heavy coffee drinker. He can't tell you whether he 

 drank one cup or two cups a day, but he can certainly tell you if he 

 was a constant coffee drinker. He also knows if coffee was never 

 drunk in the family. So you can pick out the extremes. You could, 

 on a simple questionnaire, pick out these groups. 



Magni: Although the age investigated is that of the maternal 

 grandfather of the progeny, it is the woman who is usually interviewed 

 and not the progeny, so that it is the coffee-drinking habit of the 

 woman's father which is to be investigated, which would seem an easy 

 proposition. 



Goldstein: I would like to ask one question which I think should 

 be settled here, if it can be settled. AVould it be going too far, on the 

 basis of our present knowledge, to suggest — and this would be to the 

 medical profession — that there may be a valid reason why caffeine 

 should be avoided during the early part of pregnancy? 



As a practical step it would be fairly simple to achieve. If there 

 were cause for a general campaign against caffeine in the way there 

 was a campaign against cigarettes, we know already this is unlikely to 

 be welcomed with great enthusiasm, because people who drink coffee 

 heavily need the caffeine, and you will have to supply them with an 

 alternative stimulant of some kind which is not mutagenic. But to 

 abstain from caffeine during a fixed period of a few months is some- 

 thing that is not difficult to do, if it were suggested on medical grounds. 



Russell: I think it would be too early to make this recommendation 

 now. There is not yet any evidence from mammals, and the only 

 evidence in animals that you have cited (Andrew's Drosophila experi- 

 ment) does not seem to agree with the assumption on which your 

 recommendation is based, namely, that caffeine acts only during DNA 

 replication. 



Spuhler: Among people who visit clinics for sterility problems are 

 there more than the usual proportion of coffee drinkers? 



Atwood: I don't think anybody knows about that. 



Lederberg: I don't see the value of that type of data, though. I 



