Mammals from Ancestors Treated with Alcohol. 139 



of treated animals are due to a generally weakened or impaired 

 development. The male germ cells are weakened or injured by 

 the alcohol treatment and all individuals arising from combina- 

 tions involving such a germ cell are below normal. In this con- 

 nection Cole and Davis 2 have recently recorded an interesting 

 experiment with rabbits. They sought to control the experiments 

 on the effects of alcoholic inhalations in a very ingenious way. 

 "By breeding a male homozygous for color and an albino male 

 both to an albino female it is possible to assign the young to their 

 respective fathers, since the offspring of the colored male will be 

 colored and those of the albino male will be albinos. If one of the 

 males now be alcoholized while the other is normal, and offspring 

 from both result, any differences, such as defects in the offspring, 

 may safely be attributed to the effects of the alcoholizing of the 

 male, since both sets of fetuses have developed in the same uterus 

 at the same time, and consequently there can be no question of 

 different environmental influences." 



A preliminary test of 36 double matings was made in which 

 both males were normal. One pigmented male was used in 23 of 

 these matings, an albino male also being used in each case — 190 

 offspring were produced and the albino male sired only 24 of them, 

 166 coming from the pigmented sire. This showed a strong 

 individual potency for the colored male. Yet after he had been 

 alcoholized, by the inhalation method, he failed to sire any offspring 

 at all when used in conjunction with an albino male, although he 

 was bred to the female first in at least 5 of the 7 matings made. 

 When bred alone to normal females he sired several litters of 

 young which later showed certain indications of defects. These 

 experiments demonstrate conclusively that the spermatozoon is 

 actually weakened or disabled by the alcohol treatment, as I had 

 formerly concluded in explaining the defective offspring from 

 alcoholized male guinea-pigs. 



2 Science, N. S., XXXIX, 1914. 



