No. 591] TRANSMISSION OF DEGENERACY 147 



born only one in a litter. Sixty-four and twenty-eight hun- 

 dredths per cent, of them lived. While about 51 per cent, 

 of the two-in-a-litter individuals survived, only about 22 

 per cent, of the young born three in a litter were capable 

 of surviving, and only 18.75 per cent, of the individuals 

 from the litters of four lived more than three months. 

 These figures indicate that the offspring from similarly 

 injured parents are more capable of survival when born , 

 in a small litter of one or two than when contained in^ 

 larger litters of three or four. 



This is not on account of the fact that the treated or 

 degenerate mother is more incapable of nourishing the 

 larger litters, since the same is true of the larger litters ■ 

 from normal mothers, as shown by the previous column. 

 The fact is that all young of large litters tend to be small 

 and weak at birth, whereas a single young is far better 

 accommodated. For these reasons it is always of im- 

 portance to know the size of the litter in which an animal j 

 was born in estimating the degenerate qualities it may 

 possess as compared with the qualities of another indi- 

 vidual. For example, one animal may appear larger and 

 stronger than another, and yet when bred will give rise 

 to more degenerate offspring than the weaker individual. 

 Although having a vigorous body, its germ-cell complex 

 was not so good as that of the weaker animal, from a 

 larger litter which produces better offspring. Therefore, 

 the small weak males bred to normal females do not al- 

 ways give the poorer results when compared with the 

 matings of stronger males and normal females. 



The next space is the reverse of the one above and 

 shows the percentages of mortality among the offspring 

 derived from alcoholic non-relatives. More than half of 

 the young, 53.86 per cent., from these combinations die 

 soon after birth, a mortality record just twice as high as 

 that of the control animals. 



The next space shows the frequency of deformities 

 among such young. Here it is again clearly indicated 

 that the animals born one in a litter are better than those 



