MODIFICATION OF THE GERM-CELLS IN MAMMALS 173 



The next group in table 3 are animals derived from parents 

 of alcoholic descent which had not themselves been treated. 

 These are the same 408 animals recorded in the fourth column of 

 table 2. The first class in this group are animals obtained from 

 fathers of alcoholic ancestry and normal mothers; the second 

 class are from mothers of alcoholic ancestry and normal fathers, 

 and the third class are animals produced by two alcoholic parents. 

 As mentioned above, the alcoholic father or mother may owe 

 their condition to either male or female or to both male and 

 female ancestors. These are not purely male or female alcoholic 

 lines such as will be found in the next table. 



A comparison of these three columns with the normal records 

 shows clearl}^ the alcohol effects, though not so strongly ex- 

 pressed as when the father or mother is directly treated. The 

 father and mother columns of this group differ very little from 

 one another, which is in marked contrast to the striking differ- 

 ences when the fathers and mothers are directly treated, as seen 

 in columns 1 and 2. In the present columns all of the modified 

 conditions are due to an injury of the germ cells in the treated 

 ancestral generations. This is equally as true of the alcoholic- 

 mother column as of the alcoholic father. For example, the 

 mortality records in the alcoholic father and mother columns are 

 about the same, while there is a remarkable discrepancy between 

 the mortality records of young from treated fathers and treated 

 mothers in the first two columns. The extremely high mortality, 

 largely late prenatal, among the offspring of directly treated fe- 

 males is to some extent due to the direct action of the alcohol 

 upon the early developing embryo in utero. If this action 

 could be eliminated the treated father and mother columns 

 of the first group might become as nearly similar as the alcoholic 

 father and mother columns of the second group. The individuals 

 in the latter two columns are on an average about the same dis- 

 tance removed from the ancestral alcohol treatment, and, there- 

 fore, the records would be little affected' by a correction ,on the 

 basis of the generations treated. 



When both parents are from alcoholic ancestry the produc- 

 tivity is considerably lowered as shown in the third column by 



