ALCOHOL, DISEASE, AND HEREDITARY DEFECTS 275 



the controls, and they showed a reduced activity, but the mean 

 egg production of the two groups was practically the same. The 

 mortality of the treated fowl was less than that of the controls. 

 But this result may not be significant on account of the small 

 number of individuals dealt with. "The proportion of fertile eggs 

 was materially reduced in the matings in which one or both 

 individuals had been treated. The higher the germ dosage index 

 for the mating the smaller was the percentage of fertile eggs 

 found to be. 



''The prenatal mortality measured by the percentage of em- 

 bryos (zygotes) which died before hatching to all embryos formed, 

 was materially smaller in the case of offspring from matings in 

 which one or both parent individuals were treated, than in the 

 case of offspring from untreated control parents." 



Perhaps the most striking result was that the mortality of 

 all ages after hatching was lower in the offspring of parents both 

 of which had been subjected to alcohol and while the weight 

 at hatching was much the same in both groups the adult body 

 weight was higher in the offspring of the alcoholized fowl. Ab- 

 normal offspring appeared no more frequently in the progeny of 

 alcoholized parents than in the untreated strains. In view of the 

 somewhat superior character of the fowl from alcoholized parents, 

 Pearl concludes that there is "no evidence that specific germinal 

 changes have been induced by the treatment, at least so far as 

 concerns those germ cells which produced zygotes." 



However, he admits that alcohol probably injured some of 

 the germ cells as is evinced by the high proportion of infertile 

 eggs in cases in which either the male or the female parent had 

 been treated with alcohol. Alcohol was supposed to eliminate 

 the weaker germ cells, thereby diminishing the proportion of 

 individuals developed from inferior germ plasm. Whether alcohol 

 improves or deteriorates the stock would, therefore, depend upon 

 the relation between its action as a selective agent in eliminating 

 weaker sex cells or preventing their union and its action as a 

 direct source of injury to the germ plasm. 



Both Pearl and Stockard consider their results as not opposed 



