No. 591] TRANSMISSION OF DEGENERACY 173 



The mating records of the descendants of the alcohol- 

 ized guinea pigs, although they themselves were not 

 treated with alcohol, compare in some respects even 

 more unfavorably with the control records than does the 

 above data from the directly alcoholized animals. 



Of 194 matings of F a animals in various combinations 

 55 have resulted in negative results or early abortions, 18 

 stillborn litters of 41 young occurred, and 17 per cent, of 

 these stillborn young were deformed. One hundred and 

 twenty-one living litters contained 199 young, but 94 of 

 these died within a few days and almost 15 per cent, of 

 them were deformed, while 105 survived and 7 of these 

 showed eye deformities. Among 126 full-term control 

 young of the same stock not one has been deformed. 



The records of the matings of F 2 animals are still 

 worse, higher mortality and more pronounced deformi- 

 ties, while the few F 3 individuals which have survived 

 are generally weak and in many instances appear to be 

 quite sterile even though paired with vigorous, prolific, 

 normal mates. 



The structural defects shown by the descendants of 

 alcoholized animals seem to be confined chiefly to the cen- 

 tral nervous system and special sense organs. Many of 

 the young animals show gross tremors, paralysis agitans ; 

 the hind legs, fore legs or both legs of one side may be 

 paralyzed (Plates I and II). Eye defects are very com- 

 mon, such as opaque cornea, opaque lens, various degrees 

 of monophthalmicum asymmetricum, and finally several 

 cases of complete anophthalmia have occurred, the entire 

 eyeballs, optic nerves and optic chiasma being absent 

 (Figs. 1 to 3 and Plate III). 



The quality of individuals from the same parentage 

 varies inversely with the size of the litters in which they 

 are produced. Animals born one in a litter are rather 

 strong, even though derived from very bad alcoholic lines. 

 This difference between the members of small and large 

 litters is also shown by the normal animals, but the differ- 

 ence in quality between members of large and small litters 



