No. 591] TRANSMISSION OF DEGENERACY 



171 



SUMMAEY AND CONCLUSIONS 



In the foregoing pages we have considered the results 

 of an experiment now in progress for more than five years 

 which analyzes to some extent the influence on the off- 

 spring of alcoholizing either one or both parents and the 

 manner of hereditary transmission of the induced effects 

 to subsequent generations. 



The experiments have demonstrated on two different 

 stocks of normal guinea pigs that the parental germ cells 

 may be so modified by chemical treatments that they are 

 rendered incapable of giving rise to a perfectly normal 

 offspring. This incapacity is probably due to modifica- 

 tions of the chromatin or carriers of the hereditary quali- 

 ties within the germ cells, since the great-grandchildren, 

 the F 3 generation, from the treated animals are usually 

 more decidedly affected and injured than the immediate 

 offspring (F x ) of the alcoholized animals. 



This then becomes a study of the behavior of diseased 

 or pathological chromatin in heredity. Chromatin ren- 

 dered pathological more than four years ago is still living 

 and has now been passed on to the F 3 generation from the 

 alcoholized great-grandparents. The F 3 animals are 

 almost without exception incapable of reproduction and 

 are in many ways subnormal and degenerate. 



Studies of abnormal heredity may possibly furnish a 

 means of analyzing the normal methods of action by 

 which the minute carriers of hereditary qualities con- 

 tained within the fertilized egg are capable of causing 

 complex developmental and structural changes to reoccur 

 from generation to generation in so wonderfully consist- 

 ent a manner. Just as the knowledge furnished by studies 

 of experimentally modified embryonic development has 

 supplied valuable data towards a clearer understanding 

 of the normal processes and changes which occur in the 

 developing embryo. 



The treatment of adult guinea pigs by an inhalation 

 method with daily doses of alcohol through several years 

 produces little if any noticeable effect upon the organs 



