ALCOHOL, DISEASE, AND HEREDITARY DEFECTS 2S9 



the authors obtained mainly negative results it is unscientific to 

 berate them for this fact, or to bewail the circumstance that their 

 findings may have given comfort to the friends of alcohol. 



We may pass briefly over the studies of Laitenen, MacNicholl, 

 and Bezzola since they have subjected to a critical overhauling 

 by Pearson and shown to be based on faulty methods of investiga- 

 tion. Laitenen's data do not inform us whether the father or 

 mother or both parents were alcoholic, which is a very unfortu- 

 nate omission when one is dealing with problems of heredity. 

 Weights of the children of abstainers, moderate drinkers (those 

 taking no more than a glass a beer a day) and drinkers were taken 

 by the parents at monthly intervals from birth to eight months of 

 age. The babies of the drinkers averaged somewhat less (4.4 per 

 cent for boys, 3.6 per cent for girls) than those of abstainers, the 

 offspring of "moderates" occupying an intermediate position. 

 Although when eight months old the abstainers' children were 

 heavier than those of the moderates, and these again heavier than 

 those of the drinkers, increase in weight, however, was quite as 

 rapid in the children of the drinkers when comparison is made 

 with the original weight. These results have very little signifi- 

 cance for any problem of heredity since we know little of the 

 social and nothing of the racial differences of the several classes. 

 The fact that the age at marriage for the abstainers is consider- 

 ably greater than that of drinkers might, since young mothers 

 produce small babies, be a factor-in accounting for the relatively 

 slight differences in weight between the offspring of the drinking 

 and abstaining parents. 



Bezzola contends that relatively more idiots and imbeciles 

 are conceived in Switzerland during the period of vintage and at 

 other times at which unusual amounts of alcohol are drunk, but 

 as the excess at most is only three births out of some seven hun- 

 dred it is entirely without any statistical significance. 



MacNichoU's data, despite its imposing quantity, yields no 

 evidence of the role of heredity which any critical student of 

 genetics would think of basing any conclusions upon. Maternal 

 or paternal inebriety are not distinguished, and no attempt is 



