MODIFICATION OF THE GERM-CELLS IN MAMMALS 217 



fertilized was rendered abnormal. Ivanov's report is cer- 

 tainly not sufficiently detailed to satisfy one that his results 

 have any bearing on the problem of the modification of the germ 

 cells by chemical treatment. 



There can be no doubt that if a spermatozoon is actually 

 affected by a direct chemical treatment, the egg which it fer- 

 tilizes will develop more or less abnormally. The radium and 

 X-ray experiments of Bardeen and Hertwig, as well as fertiliza- 

 tion by foreign spermatozoa give conclusive evidence on this point. 



The statistical research by Elderton and Pearson ('10) has 

 frequently been quoted as if it shows that parental alcoholism 

 was really to some degree beneficial to the human offspring. 

 Their mathematical calculations were based on two series of 

 statistics, the ''Edinburgh Charity Organization Society Report 

 and a manuscript account of the children in the special schools 

 of Manchester provided us by Miss Mary Dendy." ''Sus- 

 pected drinkers were included with drinkers," "the parents 

 could be divided into two classes only, those who are temperate 

 and those who are intemperate," and many other such state- 

 ments make this biological data somewhat unsatisfactory to 

 those interested in an experimental modification of the germ 

 plasm. These authors, however, do not claim to find any 

 effect, either good or bad, of alcoholism on the offspring, and 

 finally state that 



On the whole the balance turns as often in favor of the alcoholic 

 as of the non-alcoholic parentage. It is needless to say that we do not 

 attribute this to the alcohol, but to certain physical and possibly mental 

 characters which appear to be associated with the tendency to alcohol} 



Such a conclusion on the part of the authors themselves would 

 scarcely warrant anyone else in claiming that an effect of alco- 

 holism on the parent Jiad given evidence of its existence in the 

 quality of the children produced. A number of English physi- 

 cians interested in alcoholism largely from a social and senti- 

 mental standpoint opened a bitter attack on the memoir by 

 Elderton and Pearson, not because it claimed a beneficial effect, 



' Italics are ours. 



