Effect of Lead on Germ Cells. 



27 



B. Fowls. 



An experiment similar to that with the rabbits has been con- 

 ducted with fowls. Twelve White Leghorn hens were divided 

 into 3 lots of 4 hens each. Those in the first lot were bred only 

 to a White Leghorn cock which was being fed each day a certain 

 quantity of lead acetate; those in the second lot were bred to a 

 normal Houdan cock alone; while the hens in the third lot were 

 bred on alternate days to the Leghorn and to the Houdan. It 

 will be noted that color, comb and toe characters could all be 

 utilized in distinguishing the chicks of the respective cocks. The 

 results obtained with these three lots are tabulated respectively 

 in Tables II, III, and IV. Hen 122 of the second lot and hen 259 

 of the third lot are omitted from the tables since the former laid 

 no eggs and the latter laid only 3, all of which were infertile. 



Inspection of Table II shows that of the 174 eggs obtained 

 from hens mated to the poisoned Leghorn cock 27 per cent, were 

 infertile, 27.5 per cent, of the embryos in the 127 fertile eggs died 

 before hatching, and of the 92 chicks hatched 13, or 14. 1 per cent., 

 died before reaching the age of three weeks. Comparing these 

 results with those from the normal Houdan cock (Table III) we 

 find the percentage of infertile eggs in the latter case is much 

 higher, being 42.3 per cent, as against 27.5. On the other hand 

 the percentage of dead embryos (17.2 per cent.) is not much 

 more than half as great and the percentage of chicks dying within 

 three weeks (3.7 per cent.) is only about one fourth as high as in 

 the case of the poisoned male. 



The data from mating both cocks alternately to the hens in 

 the third lot (Table IV) corroborate the results shown in Tables 

 II and III. In all 109 eggs were laid, of which 42.1 per cent, were 

 infertile. In 17 of the fertile eggs the embryos died before hatch- 

 ing. Only 10 of these could be identified, there being 9 Leghorns, 

 from the poisoned cock, and I crossbred, of non-poisoned Houdan 

 paternity. Of 46 chicks hatched 31 (67.4 per cent.) were Leg- 

 horns, but of these 5 (16. 1 per cent.) died within three weeks 

 while all of the crossbreds survived that period. These results 

 are interpreted as indicating that in fowls also poisoning of the 

 male parent with lead results in offspring of a distinctly lower 

 average vitality. 



