Alcohol and Heredity 



Reliable data regarding the effect of alcohol on off- 

 spring are hard to procure, and often furnish contradictory- 

 conclusions. Certain facts are known, however, which 

 may be suggestive rather than conclusive: 



1. Nicloux has shown that the reproductive glands of 

 certain mammals have a strong affinity for alcohol, and may 

 contain almost as large a proportion as the blood itself. 



2. The reproductive glands of inebriates often show 

 atrophy and other degenerative changes, but sometimes 

 more children are born to alcoholics than to normal parents. 



3. Offspringof inebriates often show serious abnormal- 

 ities, such as "rickets, dwarfism, predisposition to tuber- 

 culosis and epilepsy, and to crime and mental diseases": 

 (Forel). Stockard's experiments with guinea-pigs showed 

 clearly the injurious effects of alcohol on offspring. On 

 the other hand. Pearl's experiments on the inherited 

 effects of alcohol on chickens showed fewer but stronger 

 progeny. 



Many investigators are of the opinion, however, that 

 feeble-mindedness of children is not the result of ,he alcohol- 

 ism of the parents, but that the alcoholism of the parents is 

 usually a symptom of feeble-mindedness or some form of 

 lack of control. 



Experiments with Guinea Pigs to Test Influence 

 of Alcohol on Germ Cells 



16P 



