682 GENETICS: R. PEARL 
TABLE 4 
Data on Hatching and Mortality of Chicks from Alcohol Treated Eggs 
Eggs set May 15. Hatched June 5 
CHARACTER 
LOT 1 
LOT 2 
LOT 3 
CONTROLS 
Alcohol 1 week 
Alcohol 2 weeks 
Alcohol 3 weeks 
No alcohol 
Eggs set 
130 
130 
130* 
390 
34 
35 
41 
111 
26.2 
26.9 
32.3 
28.5 
41 
41 
52 
108 
% of fertile eggs 
42.7 
43.2 
60.5 
38.7 
Number good chicks in brooder . . . 
53 
52 
32 
138 
15 
11 
12 
47 
28.3 
21.2 
37.5 
34.1 
Three eggs were broken during incubation from this lot. 
From this table we note the following points: 
a. The original sorting of the eggs in the different lots was very fair 
and equal as is indicated by the nearly equal percentages of infertility. 
h. The prenatal mortality was higher in all treated lots than in the 
controls, the differences ranging from 4% to 21.8%. 
c. The postnatal mortality was lower in Lots 1 and 2, where the eggs 
had been alcohol treated for one and two weeks of incubation respectively. 
The decrease in postnatal mortality in Lot 2 amounted to 12.9%. 
d. In Lot 3 the dosage was evidently too severe and the chicks which 
hatched had been injured by the treatment during incubation, with 
the result that they showed a somewhat higher postnatal mortality 
than the controls. 
e. Synthesizing the results we may say that the more alcohol the 
embryos received during incubation the higher was the prenatal mor- 
tality, but until the dosage became so prolonged as to injure all the 
zygotes, as in Lot 3, the prenatal mortality was selective, since the higher 
the prenatal death rate the lower was the postnatal mortality among 
the hatched chicks. 
/. The general result set forth in the preceding paragraph is contrary 
to the usual experience of poultrymen with ordinary untreated eggs, 
which is that if a lot of eggs hatch badly, many dying during incubation, 
a relatively high postnatal mortality among the chicks is also to be 
expected. It is believed that the present results may have an impor- 
tant practical application in the poultry industry. 
In summary it may be said that the results during the 1916 breed- 
ing season confirm and extend the earlier results regarding the effects 
