ALCOHOL AND HEREDITY 12$ 



ments gave an exactly opposite result. There was a 

 larger proportion of degenerate, paralytic, and grossly 

 deformed animals descended from the alcoholized males 

 than from the alcoholized females. In other words, the 

 sperm cells were more sensitive to the poison than the 

 egg cells. It is a marvelous thing, considering the 

 minute size of the sperm, that this almost infinitesimal 

 particle should be affected in a definite way, so as to 

 produce very conspicuous results in the animal to which 

 it in part gives rise. This is of course only an aspect of 

 the familiar marvel of heredity, but being new, it as- 

 tonishes us more. 



6. We may now return to our first question. In the injured 

 light of Dr. Stockard's experiments, is alcoholism in- f^^ 8 

 herited ? The offspring of the alcoholized guinea pigs offspring 

 were of course not alcoholics ; they showed various 

 defects, including low vitality. They showed characters 

 not present in their alcoholized parents at all. How, then, 

 can we speak of inheritance ? What really happened in 

 these cases ? The alcohol, penetrating to every part of 

 the body, injured the substance of the germ cells. The 

 germ plasm was directly affected, and its functions were 

 impaired. There was no tendency to produce new 

 varieties of guinea pigs ; the effects were pathological, 

 such as might be produced by poisonous substances in 

 any living tissues. It simply comes to this : the germ 

 cells, with their chromosomes and the rest, are, after all, 

 living protoplasm. They are not able to resist injurious 

 influences in every case, though their power of resistance 

 may be great. The history of life shows us how ger- 

 minal complexes have retained their substantial identity 

 for ages, unmodified or little modified by all the vicissi- 

 tudes of existence. Yet they have not wholly charmed 

 lives ; they may be injured by the direct action of cer- 



