172 CHARLES R. STOCKARD AND GEORGE N. PAPANICOLAOU 



almost a normal record. The productivity of these treated 

 mothers is high and the size of the litters would indicate a very 

 low 'early prenatal mortality.' Here, however, their good 

 records stop. 



Although the litters contained as many individuals as the con- 

 trol litters, their average weight was 26 grams below the nor- 

 mal. The large litters from treated mothers actually weighed 

 only as much as the very small litters from treated fathers; there- 

 fore, the individual members of the litters from treated mothers 

 were unusually small animals. The 'late prenatal mortality' 

 was proportionately very high — three times the postnatal. Thus 

 many of the young died in utero or were still-born, and those 

 that were born alive were small specimens. The total mor- 

 tality was 51.08 per cent, corrected for the litter sizes, and ex- 

 pressed in terms of the control as 100 it becomes 281 — the 

 highest mortality on record. 



We see from the table that treating the mother with alcohol 

 does not appreciably affect her productivity, but greatly depreci- 

 ates the quality of offspring to which she gives rise. While in 

 the case of the alcoholic father the productivity is greatly re- 

 duced, and although the quality of offspring which he begets 

 does not compare favorably with the control, it is considerably 

 superior to that from the treated mother. In the treated mother 

 the alcohol may act not alone on the ova or germ cells, but on 

 the developing embryo as well, while in the father it acts, of 

 course, on the germ cells alone. Does the difference between 

 the qualities of the offspring from these two cases represent the 

 action of the treatment on the developing young in utero? 

 Further, does the reduced productivity on the part of the 

 treated male indicate that the spermatozoon or male germ cells 

 are more sensitive to the treatment than the egg? The remain- 

 ing columns of this and the following table may throw some light 

 on these questions. 



During the period of the experiments now under consideration 

 practically no matings between treated males and females have 

 been made, as the third column of this group shows. 



