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THE AMERICAN NATURALIST [Vol. XLVL 



Generation I than it is in any of the corresponding 

 alcoholic strains. However, it never reaches that of the 

 control. In the Water Generation II the rate of repro- 

 duction is much higher than it is in Water Generation 1 

 and equals the reproductive rate of the control. This 

 demonstrates that one of the ill effects of alcohol is par- 

 tially eliminated in the first generation and is entirely 

 eliminated in the second generation after the alcohol has 

 been removed. 



Very probably the rate of reproduction of Water Gen- 

 eration I, which is lower than that of the control, is due 

 to the fact that the females in their embryonic develop- 

 ment were subjected to the influence of alcohol from which 

 they never fully recovered after they were transferred 

 to water solutions containing no alcohol. They were thus 

 perhaps influenced while in the growth and maturation 

 stages of the egg inside the body of the mother or, after 

 the egg was laid in the alcoholic solution, in the embry- 

 onic stages which occurred inside the egg membrane be- 

 fore hatching. Soon after hatching the females were put 

 into the solutions free from alcohol. 



This transmission of a low reproduction rate to Water 

 Generation I is in reality not a hereditary transmission 

 of a characteristic, but is probably the result of the direct 

 influence of the alcohol upon the mother during her em- 

 bryonic development. 



Tables II and III show the effect of copper sulphate 

 upon Water Generation II. Of the individuals tested 

 per cent, lived forty-eight hours and produced young 

 in the copper solution. Tins is only about 5 per cent, less 

 than the number of individuals of the control living and 

 producing young for the same length of time in the cop- 

 per solution. It can be concluded from these observa- 

 tions that the resisting power to copper sulphate has 

 been restored practically to normal and that these indi- 

 viduals are no more susceptible to its influence than the 

 individuals of the control. 



Billings states to the Committee of Fifty in his report, 



