HEREDITY AND HUMAN IMPROVEMENT 



bad inheritance? This is a very important question 

 upon which it is very desirable that more should be 

 known. Some writers have answered it in the negative, 

 but several recent experiments have shown that the ques- 

 tion may have to be answered in the other way. In his 

 experiments on the hereditary influence of alcohol in 

 Guinea pigs Stockard found that the offspring of animals 

 subjected for several weeks to the fumes of alcohol 

 were frequently undersized and of diminished vitality. 

 The animals tested were first bred together and found 

 capable of producing healthy young. Afterward they 

 were kept under the influence of alcohol, and then bred 

 and the young compared with those of the former matings 

 of normal Guinea pigs. Matings were made between 

 normal males and alcoholic females, normal females and 

 alcoholic males and alcoholic males and alcoholic females. 

 All of these gave a considerable number of offspring that 

 were dead at birth (still born) and several young dying 

 soon after birth, the proportions in both cases being highest 

 in those matings in which both parents were alcoholic. 

 The striking difference between progeny of alcoholic 

 and normal parents is shown in the following table: 



* cf 1 = male; 9 = female. 

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