THE AMERICAN NATURALIST [Vol.LVI 



Obviously, the situation is complicated, and equally obvi- 

 ous is tbe impossibility of proving the individual effects 

 of two or more influences acting simultaneously. How- 

 ever, in this case the evidence favoring one supposition 

 (that of selective elimination of germinal material) is 

 very much more convincing than that favoring the sup- 

 position of germinal modification. So great, indeed, is 

 this difference that the evidence of direct modification 

 could easily be brushed aside and selective elimination 

 be effectively championed as the effect of the alcohol, 

 although even this involves two opposite results depend- 

 ing upon the proximity of the alcohol. But if a true 

 statement of the situation is desired, the conflicting evi- 

 dence must not be brushed aside. 



If the germinal variability existing in the race is greater 

 than the variability caused by the direct action of the 

 alcohol upon the germinal material, the results actually 

 obtained would be expected; that is, the effects of selec- 

 tive elimination would appear more striking in the end 

 results. Since the reductions in litter size and in beha- 

 vior stand in spite of an apparently much stronger racial 

 improvement, these reductions give stronger support to 

 the supposition that germinal modification is a second 

 activity of the alcohol than is indicated by their magni- 

 tude. 



The fact that so many different conclusions have been 

 reached by different investigators from experiments with 

 alcohol would in itself suggest very strongly that the ac- 

 tion of this chemical upon animals is not simple and di- 

 rect like the action of an acid upon a base, yet the general 

 attitude toward the problem seems to have been that 

 there should be a single answer, in one direction or the 

 other, and that as soon as an investigator devises the 

 perfect method, this answer will be disclosed. As long 

 as such an attitude persists the alcohol problem will 

 flounder about in the morass of futile and inconclusive 

 papers. The moment chemistry, and later, experimental 

 breeding, turned away from end results to the phenomena 



