508 6. Vererbungslehre. 



the Offspring. Eugenics Laboratory Memoirs, X. pp. 46. Published by 

 Dulau & Co. London 1910. 



In the Introducüon it is noted how important is an accurate knowledge 

 of the effects of alcoholism in parents on the children, but that conclusions 

 from statistics may be vitiated by being (1) a mark of defective stock, so that 

 defects in the children of alcoholics may not be due to alcohol; (2) the de- 

 fects in the children may be due to evil home environment, caused by the 

 drinking of the parents, but only indirectly due to alcohol. 



The material on which the paper is based is derived (1) from a report 

 on the home environment of the children attending a certain school in Edin- 

 burgh; (2) an account of the home environment of the children attending a 

 special school for defective children in Manchester. The parents are classified 

 as „sober" (including total abstainers and very moderate drinkers), „drinks", 

 and „has drinking bouts". It was found that the sober fathers earned slightly 

 higher wages (about 2 to 4 percent.) than the drinking fathers, and that 

 drinking mothers are more often employed than sober. Those who are su- 

 spected of drinking, without proof, are included with drinkers. 



The statistics are reduced by the methods devised by Prof. Pearson 

 and the chief conclusions are: — 1. There is a higher death-rate among the 

 offspring of alcoholic than of sober parents, and this is more marked in the 

 case of alcoholism in the mother. The drinking parents are also more fertile. 

 2. The correlations between drinking in the parents and height and weight 

 of children are barely significant. 3. The general health of the children of 

 drinking parents is slightly better than that of sober parents. Allowing for 

 higher death rate etc. it may be said that drinking in parents has no marked 

 effect on the childrens health. 4. Parental alcoholism is not the cause of men- 

 tal defect, or even of diminished intelligence, in the children. 5. No distinct 

 relation was found between parental drinking and imperfect vision or eye- 

 disease in children. 



It is concluded therefore that parental alcoholism has no directly 

 ill effects on the offspring, but that apparent evil effects, when found, 

 are due to congenital defects in the parents. 



[The above paper is criticised by J. M. Keynes (The Statistical Review, 

 July 1910, p. 769 — 773) on the grounds that (1) the statistics are too small 

 (685 families), (2) that the cases investigated are not representative, (3) they 

 are not properly classified. He supports his contention by quotations from 

 the original reports from which Eider ton and Pearson's date were taken, 

 and concludes that drunken stock is compared with bad sober stock, so 

 vitiating the results obtained.] Doncaster (Cambridge). 



1068) Krause, A. H., (Heldrungeii), „Sechsfinger" auf Sardinien. 

 (Kl. Mitteilung.) 



(Zoologischer Beobachter 51,3. P- 89. 1910.) 

 Eine Hunderasse von Asuni, Sardinien, besitzt sechs Zehen an den 

 Hinterbeinen. Wolterstorff (Magdeburg). 



1069) Oard, Hybrides binaires de premiere generation dans le 

 genre Cistus et caracteres mendeliens. 



(Comptes Rendus Acad. des Sc. de Paris 151,3. p. 239—241. 1910.) 

 L'auteur a etudie les 860 hybrides produits ä l'aide des 37 combinaisons 

 binaires realisees par Ed. Bornet entre diverses especes de Cistus. 



