PARENTAL ALCOHOLISM AND THE PROGENY 277 



Comparative mean body weights at 250 days of age 



Absolute weight Relative weight 



Females ex untreated d^o" X untreated 9 9 1927.72 100 



Females ex treated cf cf X untreated 9 9 2020.38 105 



Females ex treated cf d' X treated 9 9 2062.98 107 



4. At all ages in the case of the male chicks, and in all ages 

 but two (12.5 and 19.5 days) in the case of the female chicks, 

 the mean body weight of the offspring having both parents alco7 

 holic was higher than that of the offspring having one parent 

 only, the father, alcoholic. The differences are, for the most 

 part, insignificant in comparison with their probable errors, but 

 the uniformity with which the dotted curves maintain their 

 superiority over the dash curves is noteworthy. 



5. There are no distinctive differences in relative variability 

 between the three different lots of chicks. In general the rela- 

 tive variability tends to diminish after an age of about 30 days 

 is past. 



The evidence derived from a study of the growth of the 

 chickens in this experiment lends no support to the view that 

 parental alcoholism reduces the vitality of the offspring or induces 

 degeneracy. On the contrary the data plainly indicate that the 

 offspring of alcoholized parents are in some degree superior in 

 vigor and vitality to those from untreated parents. 



IX. DEFORMITIES IN THE Fi PROGENY 



One of the most striking features of Stockard's results on the 

 alcoholization of guinea pigs is that a considerable percentage 

 of the progeny of treated parents exhibit gross malformations 

 of various organs, particularly the eyes. In the present experi- 

 ments with poultry, nothing of this sort has made its appear- 

 ance. In breeding poultry on an extensive scale one always gets 

 from perfectly normal parents a certain small number of de- 

 formed crippled and weak chickens at the time of hatching. 

 The practical poultryman classes these together as 'cripples.' 

 They apparently are caused primarily by unfavorable conditions 

 during the incubation, and secondarily by deleterious influences 

 acting upon the mother at the time the eggs which are to give 



