204 CHARLES R. STOCKARD AND GEORGE N. PAPANICOLAOU 



If we now recall the fact that alcoholic animals produce more 

 small-size litters than do the control, and recognize that mem- 

 bers of small litters in all cases weigh more, grow faster, and are 

 more apt to survive than members of larger litters, it becomes 

 evident that the production of a high percentage of small litters 

 is a fortunate provision tending to preserve the alcoholic stock 

 by counterbalancing to some degree the magnitude of the 

 effects induced by the alcohohsm. 



Second, animals born in litters of two or three have a tendency 

 to weigh the same at birth and to grow at a similar rate dur- 

 ing the first three months, whether they are from the normal or 

 alcohohc stock. In other words, being born in Utters of this size 

 gives no great advantage to the normal animals over the alco- 

 holics, as does being born in litters of only one. Or stated re- 

 versely, members of litters of two or three are not placed at a 

 great disadvantage so far as birth weight and growth rate are 

 concerned on account of their alcoholic ancestry, as is found 

 below to be the case for the members of larger litters. 



In the third place, when animals are born in litters of four 

 the alcoholic stock are at a disadvantage in birth weight when 

 compared with the normal. The rate of growth of the alcoholic 

 animals from litters of four is also slower than that of the com- 

 parable control animals. 



Lastly, in the fourth place, alcoholic animals born five in a 

 litter are very small and weak and only a few survive, yet these 

 selected few fall far behind the normal animals from litters of five 

 in their rate of growth. Thus at three months there is a greater 

 difference in average weight between the alcoholic and control 

 members of litters of five than between the members of any other 

 size litters in the two series, except the animals born singly. 

 The alcoholic animals as a group are at a disadvantage in birth 

 weight and rate of growth, but when born in large litters of four 

 or particularly five, this disadvantage is greatly exaggerated by 

 the handicap which befalls the members of all large litters, the 

 control as well as the alcoholic. 



