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THE AMERICAN NATURALIST [Vol. L 



ters contained only 26 young, and 12 of these, or 46 per 

 cent., died soon after birth, while but 16 per cent., or one 

 third as many, of the control offspring died out of a total 

 of 118 individuals. The data from the double alcoholic 

 matings is, therefore, extremely bad in the light of normal 

 matings from the same animal stocks bred under exactly 

 the same cage and food conditions. 



The fourth horizontal line summarizes the records of 

 all the matings of directly alcoholized animals. In all 

 164 such matings have been made ; 64 of these, or almost 

 40 per cent., gave negative results or early abortions. 

 Eighteen stillborn litters occurred, consisting of 40 indi- 

 viduals against only two questionable stillborn litters 

 from 90 control matings. Eighty-two, or only 61 per 

 cent., living litters were born, consisting of 152 individ- 

 uals, 82, or 54 per cent., of which survived and 70, or 46 

 per cent., died soon after birth ; in all 110 full-term young 

 died, while only 82, or 42 per cent., of the total 192 full- 

 term young resulting from the 164 alcoholic matings sur- 

 vived. On the other hand, out of a total of 126 full-term 

 young from only 90 control matings, 99, or 78.5 per cent., 

 survived. The control matings were far more prolific 

 than those of the alcoholized animals and the condition 

 of the young as indicated by the mortality record was far 

 superior to that of the alcoholic offspring. 



The fifth line records the outcome of 90 control mat- 

 ings which have been scattered through the entire prog- 

 ress of the experiment under exactly the same conditions 

 and from the same animal stocks as the experimental 

 matings. Eighty-four per cent, of the young in the 66 

 living litters resulting from the matings of normal ani- 

 mals have survived and all are strong, healthy individ- 

 uals ; in not one instance do they show an indication of 

 nervous degeneracy or any type of recognizable struc- 

 tural deformity, while such degeneracy as well as de- 

 formities are extremely prevalent among the offspring 

 and descendants of the alcoholized animals. One other 

 point to be mentioned in considering the records of the 



