EFFECT OF ALCOHOL ON FOWL 175 



possible to measure exactly the portion of this effect resulting 

 from the treatment because of the absence of weighings of un- 

 treated controls during this critical period. There is probably 

 norrnally some decline in body weight between January and 

 June. It is, however, not normally as great as that here ob- 

 served in the treated birds. 



4. Beginning in June, 1915 in the case of the ethyl alcohol 

 bii'ds, and in July, 1915 in the case of the methyl birds, there 

 has been a steady increase in the mean weight of the treated 

 birds up to and including February 1, 1916. At the latter 

 date the treated averaged about 300 grams more per bird in 

 body weight than the controls. Put in another way, the alco- 

 hol birds were 9.9 per cent heavier after about 15 months of 

 inhalation treatment than untreated control birds of the same 

 average age. This is a sensible, though not very great differ- 

 ence. It certainly does not indicate that any profound or far- 

 reaching effect upon the general metabolic processes of these 

 birds has as yet been produced by the treatment. 



5. In general the changes in the body weight shown by treated 

 Barred Plymouth Rock females are paralleled in the treated 

 Black Hamburg males. The chief difference is that the changes 

 are absolutely somewhat smaller in the males. 



The further course of the body weight changes in these birds 

 Mdll be watched with great interest. In such birds as have so 

 far come to autopsy there has been no indication of fat infiltra- 

 tion of any of the visceral organs. Apparently the 10 per cent 

 increase in weight is due entirely to deposition of body fat. 



IV. EGG PRODUCTION 



In the egg production of fowls we are dealing directly with 

 an easily measurable activity of the very organ whose products 

 we hope to influence, namely the ovary. On this account it is 

 of particular importance to examine carefully the facts regard- 

 ing this character in the alcohoUzed birds as compared with 

 their untreated sisters. The present experiments may be re- 

 garded as especially favorable for such a study, inasmuch as the 

 Barred Plymouth Rock females used in the work had been 



