Transplanting th2 Ovaries. — The results of the experi- 

 ments of Castle and Phillips with guinea-pigs support the 

 views of Weismann. The ovaries of a young black guinea- 

 pig were transplanted to a young white female whose ova- 

 ries had been previously removed. This white guinea-pig 

 was later mated to a white male. The progeny in three 

 litters were all black. 



Are the effects of training hereditary? Account for 

 the improvement in the speed of trotting horses in the last 

 hundred vears from a mile in 2:48t by Barton in 1810 to a 

 mile in l': 58 by Uhlan in 1913, and the records of college 

 athletics. 



Evidence^ is accumulating to prove that alcohol is 

 both a germinal and a foetal poison, and is in some degree 

 responsible for the large percentage of unhealthy and im- 

 becile children born of alcoholic parents, and for the large 

 percentage of still births and abortions. One must be care- 

 ful, however, not to fall into the old fallacy, "Post hoc ergo 

 propter hoc." Alcoholism may possibly be only a symptom 

 of some neurotic taint, expecially feeble-mindedness. It 

 may be that the defects in the children are not really due to 

 the effects of alcohol but to the fact that the parents were 

 degenerate to begin with. 



There is no doubt, however, that alcohol has a great 

 affinity for the reproductive glands and in experiments con- 

 ducted in alcoholized mammals the amount in these glands 

 was about 3/5 of that in the blood (See pages 169-170). 



(c) — Maternal Impressions 



It has always been a very common belief that certain 

 "vivid sense-impressions of a pregnant mother may so 

 affect the unborn offspring that structural changes result, 

 which have some correspondence with the maternal ex- 

 perience." Jacob set up peeled wands to get striped 

 cattle in his efforts to outwit Laban (Genesis XXX. 31-43). 

 Birth marks are commonly ascribed to prenatal disturb- 

 ances. 



When it is borne in mind that there is no direct means 

 of transmission from mother to child, for no nerve or blood- 

 vessel passes through the placenta, it is hard to imagine 

 that "impressions" are produced in this way. The child 

 derives its nourishment not directly but indirectly by a 

 process of soakage or osmosis from the mother's blood. 



(1) — Nicloux, Porel, Bezzola, Goddard, Mjoen, Stockard. Pearson, are 

 some of the investigators whose publications should be read. 



62 



