680 
GENETICS: R. PEARL 
TABLE 3 
Showing the Effect of the Inhalation of Ethyl and Methyl Alcohol Vapor on 
THE Temperature and Respiration of Fowls Habituated to these Substances 
ry-n r\TTX> AXm TT> T* A TUTT? XTT 
OKUUlr ACiU IKJl'AiMil.rJr 
RECTAL TEMPER- 
ATURE BEFORE 
TREATMENT F° 
RECTAL TEMPER- 
ATURE AFTER 
TREATMENT F" 
DIFFERENCE 
RESPIRATION PER 
MINUTE BEFORE 
TREATMENT 
RESPIRATION PER 
MINUTE AFTER 
TREATMENT 
DIFFERENCE 
NUMBER OF BIRDS 
IN GROUP 
NUMBER OF OB- 
SERVATIONS 
Mean of normal controls 
107.14 
23.77 
12 
48 
Mean of tanked controls 
107.07 
107.13 
+0.05 
22.89 
23.67 
+0.66 
4 
16 
Mean of all ethyls 
107.07 
106.43 
-0.64 
18.24 
27.86 
+9.62 
7 
29 
Mean of ethyl 9 9 
107.00 
106.36 
-0.64 
18.24 
28.76 
+10.52 
6 
25 
107.14 
105.91 
-1.23 
18.56 
22.50 
+4.31 
4 
16 
Mean of methyl 9 9 
107.53 
106.45 
-1.08 
19.00 
23.75 
+4.75 
3 
12 
This table shows that: 
a. Those birds which/ by long continued daily treatment, extending 
over periods varying from six months to two years, have become thor- 
oughly habituated to alcohol have a slower respiration rate than nor- 
mal untreated birds of the same breeds, the difference amounting on 
the average to 4 or 5 respirations per minute. There appears to be no 
steady constant difference between chronic alcoholists and normals 
in body temperature. 
h. The tanked control birds show no significant change in temperature 
or respiration as a result of an hour's sojourn in an empty tank. 
c. On the contrary the birds which stay one hour daily in a tank con- 
taining alcohol vapor exhibit marked and definite changes in their 
physiological condition at the end of the hour. These changes con- 
sist of a drop in temperature, amounting on the average to nearly 1J°F. 
in the case of methyl treatment, and about half as much in the case of 
ethyl, and a coincident increase in respiration rate, amounting on the 
average to about ten respirations per minute, or a 50% increase in the 
ethyl, and to about four and one-half respirations, or a 25% increase 
in the methyl. 
d. These immediate physiological changes are precisely the same in 
kind and comparable in amount to those which have been shown by 
Voltz and BaudrexeP to follow the taking of moderate to large doses 
of ethyl alcohol by drinking, in the case of dogs and men. 
5. I have interpreted the results on parental alcoholism which have 
been obtained by myself and other workers as due to a selective action 
of the agent upon the germ cells, in the sense of killing, or at any rate 
