272 THE TREND OF THE RACE 



alcohol of just the proper strength, the spermatozoa could be 

 injured so that eggs fertilized by them developed in an abnormal 

 manner. 



While most of the experiments on the hereditary influence 

 of alcohol in animals are singularly lacking in conclusiveness, 

 the recent work on guinea pigs by Stockard in collaboration with 

 Craig and Papanicolaou has afforded data of a much more con- 

 vincing sort. The animals used were first mated and shown 

 to be capable of producing normal offspring before they were 

 subjected to alcohol, and only healthy and fertile stock was 

 employed. For six days per week the guinea pigs were subjected 

 to the fumes of alcohol until they began to show signs of intox- 

 ication, although they were never allowed to become completely 

 intoxicated. After this treatment was continued for some time 

 the animals were mated. Normal males were mated with alco- 

 holized females and vice versa; and there were also matings of 

 alcoholized males with alcoholized females. 



Out of ninety matings of normal females with alcoholized 

 males thirty-seven gave negative results or early abortions; ten 

 of the litters from the other matings were stillborn, and out of the 

 forty-three Htters containing living young, about thirty-five lived 

 but a few days, while the survivors, forty-seven in number, 

 contained many small and defective individuals. 



In thirty-three matings between normal males and alcohoHzed 

 females seven gave negative results. Four produced only still- 

 born young, and of the young from the twenty-two living litters, 

 twenty-three died soon after birth. When both parents were 

 subjected to alcohol, out of forty-one matings twenty gave no 

 results, or early abortions. Fourteen resulted in stillborn litters, 

 and the seventeen living litters contained only twenty-six young 

 of which twelve died soon after birth. 



Contrasted with the foregoing is the outcome of ninety matings 

 of normal guinea pigs giving sixty-six living litters with ninety- 

 nine surviving offspring. 



These results are sufficiently striking, not only because of the 

 considerable numbers of animals employed, but on account of 



i 



