ON THE DOMESTIC FOWL. 251 



Summarizing the general features of the above results regarding 

 production of offspring by alcoholized parents it may be said that 

 the average percentage fertility of eggs is diminished and the average 

 hatching power of the fertile eggs is increased after alcoholization of 

 the parents. The reduction in average fertility of the eggs is due 

 chiefly to the efifect on the germ cells of the males and females, whose 

 sexual activity is in general somewhat diminished by the treatment. 

 Also alcoholized females are not as attractive to the males as untreated 

 and hence are discriminated against in the matings, and furthermore 

 probably the oviduct of the treated female does not furnish quite so 

 favorable an environment for sperm as the oviduct of untreated 

 females. The net result is that alcoholized parents produce on the 

 average fewer ofifspring per mating unit than do normal, untreated 

 parents under conditions otherwise similar. 



4. Mortality of Fj Chicks. — According to the results of earlier 

 work in this general field it would be expected that there would be 

 a decidedly higher rate of mortality among the offspring of the 

 alcoholized parents than the normal. 



Taking all the evidence of the present experiments into account, 

 it admits of no doubt that the probability that a chick on the Maine 

 Station's poultry range in 191 5 would survive to maturity was not 

 diminished, but, on the contrary, was in general substantially in- 

 creased, if that chick's parents had both been subjected to a daily 

 dosage of alcohol for from four to seven months before it was 

 hatched. Since the chicks from treated parents were indiscrim- 

 inately mixed with those from normal parents in housing, yarding, 

 feeding, watering, etc., the fact that the former sort of chicks 

 showed a lower mortality than the latter sort cannot be attributed to 

 differential treatment after hatching. 



5. The Sex Ratio in the F^ Progeny of Alcoholized Parents and 

 Normal Parents of the Same Breeds. — It has been claimed at various 

 times and by various persons that the general metabolic condition of 

 the parents at the time of conception is a factor in sex determination, 

 or at least has an influence on the sex ratio. 



The figures give no ground for asserting that the relative pro- 

 portions of the sexes produced are significantly different in the alco- 

 holic and normal control series. If the treatment has had an in- 



