166 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST [Vol. L 



the difference in quality between male and female off- 

 spring is actual, although such ma tings furnish no definite 

 analysis of the conditions. 



In the first place, the upper half of the diagram shows 

 that the mortality is higher and the defects more frequent 

 among the female offspring of treated males than among 

 their sons. The products of the heterogeneous matings 

 in which these male and female offspring have taken part 

 go to indicate that the first apparent difference in their 

 records was a real difference. The mortality record of 

 the mass descendants from the sons of alcoholized fathers 

 is about 20 per cent, better than the mortality record from 

 the descendants of the daughters of alcoholic fathers. 

 And the proportion of deformities is 50 per cent, higher 

 among the descendants of the daughters than among the 

 descendants of the sons. These conditions of the de- 

 scendants prove that the female offspring from the alco- 

 holized males are actually worse than the male offspring 

 in the following respects : their mortality record, the fre- 

 quency of deformities, and the quality of young to which 

 they give rise. The only plausible way to account for the 

 origin of this difference is to assume that the female- 

 producing spermatozoa were more modified by the treat- 

 ment than the male-producing spermatozoa. Whether 

 such an increased modification is due to the presence of 

 a greater mass of chromatin to be injured in the one case 

 than in the other or to a difference in response on the part 

 of the two heteromorphic sex chromosomes it is impossi- 

 ble to state. The difference, however, is a fact ! 



The lower half of the diagram illustrates the different 

 qualities of the male and female offspring from alcohol- 

 ized mothers. Here each sex of the offspring in accord- 

 ance with prevalent cytological views receives an equal 

 amount of chromatin from the treated mother. And, 

 moreover, as far as the treated mother is concerned simi- 

 lar chromosomal complexes are conveyed to both sexes 

 of the offspring. The two classes of young should, there- 

 fore, show similar conditions, but such is not the case. 



