300 Maine Agricultural Experiment Station. 1917. 



THE EXPERIMENTAL MODIFICATION OF GERM 



CELLS. 



III. The Effect of Parental Alcoholism and Certain 

 Other Drug Intoxicants Upon the Progeny.* 



This paper deals with the? influence on the offspring of al- 

 cohol and like poisons administered to the parents. That this 

 is one of the most fundamental problems of breeding admits of 

 no doubt. The method by which this general problem is attacked 

 in the present investigation is that of exposing systematically 

 the germ cells of the bird to the fumes of ethyl alcohol, methyl 

 alcohol and ether and analyzing the results on the offspring. 

 The specific conclusions coming out of this investigation are : 



1. The fertility of the eggs where one or both individuals 

 are treated is reduced in direct proportion to the dosage of the 

 poison. 



2. The parental mortality (percentage of dead embryoes) 

 was materially smaller where one or both parents were treated 

 than the controls. The same conclusion holds true for post 

 natal mortality. 



3. The sex ratio of the progeny was not materially effected 

 by treatment of the parents. 



4. There was no significant difference in hatching weight 

 of the offspring of treated males and the offspring of normal 

 untreated control males when both were mated to sound un- 

 treated females. Both the male and female offspring of matings 

 in which both parents were treated showed a higher mean hatch- 

 ing weight than the offspring of either completely normal con- 

 trol matings, or of matings in which the father only was treated. 

 The adult offspring of alcholyzed parents (one or both) were 

 heavier than the controls. 



5. In the case of the male chickens there was no substan- 

 tial difference in the rate of growth in the three lots until after 

 an age of about 100 days was passed. From that point on the 

 male offspring of treated (^(^ X untreated and treated 5? grew 

 at a more rapid rate than the controls. The difference in mean 



*This paper is an abstract from a paper by Raymond Pearl, having 

 the same title and published in the Journal of Experimental Zoology, 

 Vol. 22, No. 2, pp. 241-310. 



