EXPERIMENTS WITH ALCOHOL 127 



the progeny I suggested that it seemed highly desu'able that 

 experiments along similar Unes should be carried out with some 

 bird as material. The differences in mode of reproduction be- 

 tween mammals and birds offered an opportunity, as it seemed 

 to me, to check certain possibly doubtful points in the inter- 

 pretation of the guinea-pig results. Upon Professor Stockard's 

 very kind assurances that he should regard this as in no way an 

 encroachment upon his field of work, I started the experiments 

 here reported in the early autumn of 1914. 



The problem of the effect of parental alcoholism upon the 

 progeny was first assigned to Mr. H. R. Barrows as a subject 

 for a doctorial thesis. The actual management of the experi- 

 ment and the taking of the routine data were in the hands of 

 Mr. Barrows from September, 1914, to about March, 1915. At 

 about that time, for reasons which need not here be gone into, 

 the problem and the experiments reverted to the writer. For 

 eflficient and timely aid in various phases of the conducting of 

 the experiment, collecting the quantitative data, and comput- 

 ing the results I am greatly indebted to the following assistants 

 in this laboratory: Dr. Maynie R. Curtis, Mr. John Rice Miner 

 and Mr. H, T. Covell, as well as to Mr. H. R. Barrows, as 

 aheady mentioned. 



The problems with which this investigation deals are specifi- 

 cally these: 



1. Does the continued administration of ethyl alcohol (or 

 similar narcotic poisons) to the domestic fowl induce precise 

 and specific changes in the germinal material, such as to lead 

 to new, heritable, somatic variations? 



2. Failing a specific effect, is there a general effect upon the 

 germinal material leading to general degeneracy of the progeny? 



3. What in general are the effects upon the soma of the 

 treated individual of the continued administration of such 

 poisons? 



4. Ai-e the somatic effects upon the treated individuals of a 

 sort to give any clue as to the probable origin, or mechanism 

 of the germinal changes? 



The general plan adopted for the presentation of the results 

 of these alcohol experiments is as follows. In this first paper 



