The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1917-02-02
ALCOHOLIC Hens
HAVE PROVED TO.
BE GOOD MOTHERS
Their Chicks Are Stronger
But Not So Mum
4 erOl1S.

Prot. Raymond Pearl at the biological
laboratory o., the Maine Agricultural
Experimental Station indicate that
the progeny Of alcoholic parentage,
while fewer in number, is made up Of
individuals superior in physiological
vigor, this result beng due to a selec-
I tive action Of the alcohol upon the
germ cells.
Y These experiments. which have been
in process several years tend to show
that In each reproducing individual Of
d speciesin man himself, for exam
Y pie there are many germ cells. both
good and bad, weak and strong; and
~ employing some selective agency,
such as alcohol, the weak germ cells
are destroyed, so that only superior
offspring result.
Except by analogy there is no posi-
tive proof as yet that what is true Of
poultry is true OF humankind. It is
~ be mentioned, though that Prof
q. n Stockard, In similar experiments
4 on guinea fowl, found that alcohol
Inclined them to abnormal offspring.
Prof. Papanico1aou also has been
experimenting In the same field with
q other animals, and he reports a ten
dency to degeneration in offspring of
/ mammals fed on alcohol
The earliest tests at the Maine Bio
!, logical Laboratory consisted in the
daily administrations to poultry Of in
halations OF grain alcohol, wood alco-
i hot or ether.
The chief results OF all the tests, ac-
cording to an account by DR.. Pearl
In the Proceedings Of the National
Academy OF Sciences, was that the OFF,
spring OF parents which had inhaled
the vapor OF one or another of these
Substances for one hour each day
day over an average period as to NOR
tality at all ages, weight at Matching,
adult weight, rate OF growth and adj
herence to normal type.
The offspring Of untreated parents
were superior to those OF alcoholized
parents only In respect Of their num-
bers, the untreated parents producing
d larger total number.
In the later experiments ether was
discarded, only the two forms Of al
cohol being used. The observations
now cover three generations Of chick
ems
Following are the results Of the
1915 matings.
In every 100 eggs from alcoholized
chickens, $50 Matched, as against so
from non-alcoho1ized parents.
u Nhe mortality up to six months
chicks Of alcoho1ized parents was 5
per cent. less than among the chicks
Of temperance ancestry.
The sterility due to alcohol is more
marked In the female.
There is no significantly higher pro-
portion Of abnormalities among the
chicks Of alcoholized parents:
Those birds which, by long contin-
ued daily treatment, covering six
months to two years, have become
thoroughly habituailzsi to alcohol
have q slower respiration rate than
normal untreated birds of the same
breeds, the difference amounting on
the average to four or five respiratinos
minute.
There appears to be no steady con-
slant difference in body temperature
between chronic alcoho'ists and nor
mails.
What makes Prof. Pearl believe
that his experiments on fowl are ap-
pIicable to human beings is the fact
that the chickens show physiological
changes Identical with those of human
beings while alcoholized in varor
tank, Indicating similar resistance to
alcohol by the germ cells; whereas
guinea pigs germ cells are not resist
ant, since the progeny Of aicoholized
guinea pigs are few in number, weak
and abnormal
Thus, birds, at the end Of an hour
In tank Of vaporized alcohol, show a
drop In temperature and an increase
IN respiration. So do men who drink.
Prof. Pearl verified his experiments
on chickens by subjectihg eggs In an
incubator to alcohol vapor baths daily.
Ihese results were as follows:
From to 20 per cent. higher than
aormal mortality was caused among