64 ADAPTATION AND DISEASE 



ingenious method Professor Stockard overcame the difficulty. 

 He constructed a special box-chamber in which he could subject 

 these animals to the fumes of alcohol, and he induced chronic 

 alcoholism by subjecting them for six days per week to these 

 fumes until they showed signs of intoxication. Treated males 

 were paired with treated females, normal males with treated 

 females, and treated males with normal females. The experi- 

 ment was very complete. Altogether, in his first series of 40 

 matings 25 gave no result, or the mothers aborted early and 

 ate their young. The remaining 15 matings gave 25 young 

 (in place of about 60). Of the 25, 8 were still-born, 7 lived for 

 a few days after birth and then died in convulsions, 4 were in 

 utero when the mother was killed (and of these one was deformed). 

 Six only survived. 



Professor Stockard has supplied me with the following figures 

 regarding the results of mating of alcoholized fathers with normal 

 mothers. There were 24 such matings : 



14 were either negative or gave early abortions ; 



5 gave still-born litters (in all, 8 young) ; 



5 only gave living Utters (in all, 12 young). 

 Of the 12 living offspring from these 24 matings : 



7 died in convulsions soon after birth ; 



5 survived, but when two months old were only half the size 

 of control normal guinea-pigs of the same age. 

 Thus, under the influence of paternal alcoholism 24 matings 

 only produced as many surviving young as might be expected 

 from a single pairing of healthy guinea-pigs. 



But this is not all. Professor Stockard has continued these 

 observations, and, calling attention more particularly to the 

 stigmata of degeneration observed in the offspring of this alcoholic 

 parentage, has demonstrated that if members of the second 

 generation which themselves have never been subjected to the 

 fumes of alcohol be now mated together, their offspring, members 

 of the third generation, exhibit the same stigmata to a still 

 more pronounced degree. 1 



He observed that those of the offspring of alcoholized males 

 and normal females which reached maturity were in general 

 undersized and nervous, and here is the point : if these second- 

 generation animals were brought up under normal conditions, 

 1 Proc. Soc. for Exper. Biol, and Med. xi., 1914, 136. 



