390 Charles R. Stockard. 
were also described and figured in other individuals. Free lenses 
occur very commonly in heads showing various eye abnormalites; 
a full consideration of these cases is recorded elsewhere. 
SUMMARY 
1. When the eggs of the fish, Fundulus heteroclitus, are subjected 
during early stages of development to the action of weak solutions 
of alcohol the resulting embryos show marked abnormalities in 
the structure of their central nervous system and organs of special 
sense. 
The eyes in such individuals are either both small with poorly 
differentiated retine, cyclopean, asymmetrically monophthal- 
mic or entirely absent. These ophthalmic defects sometimes 
occur in as many as 98 per cent of the specimens. Such anomalies 
are closely similar to those previously induced with Mg, and in 
both cases are probably due to the anesthetic property of the 
substances acting upon the eggs. 
Alcohol tends to suppress the development and differentiation 
of the auditory vesicles. A few specimens are entirely without 
ears, others have one ear more or less perfectly developed while 
the opposite ear is scarcely formed at all and still other individuals 
have both ears extremely defective. In all cases examined the. 
better ear is invariably on the side with the better developed eye 
if the eyes are also asymmetrically formed. The most persistent 
portion of the internal ear, or that part which exists when all 
other parts are wanting, is a cavity with an epithelial lining 
resembling closely in structure an ampulla of the semicircular 
canals. This fact may be interpreted to mean that the ampulla 
is one of the most ancient or fundamental parts of the ear, and it 
might further be considered indicative of the archaic function of 
the ear as an organ of equilibrium since this is the chief function 
of the ampulle. 
The brain is usually narrow and pointed in embryos that have 
been treated with alcohol. It occasionally has a dorsal hernia 
and shows regions of poor differentiation. The cell arrangement 
jn the spinal cord are abnormal in many cases and spina-bifida 
