•^ NOTE and COMMENT [^» 



Age axd PROTOPiyASM^Casper L. Redfield of Chicago, 

 has repeatedly called the attention of scientists to a theory ad- 

 vanced by him which purports to account for the improvement 

 noted in various animals and man by the effect of age on pro- 

 toplasm. In the trotting horse, for instance, he finds that young 

 animals are not the record-makers, but that powers of such 

 animals increase up to a considerable age. He finds, also, that 

 the progeny of such sires appear to be influenced by age in the 

 same way, the older the animal at the time of breeding, the 

 likelier the colt will be to sliow improved speed. Redfield as- 

 serts that such relationships exist elsewhere and even concludes 

 that the difference between genius and mediocrity is man is a 

 matter of age only. He finds that no really great men of the 

 caliber of Darwin. Edison, or Galileo have been sons of young 

 parents. According to his theory, the male parents for at least 

 three generations must have been more than M years old when 

 their children were born. In three generations a man has 

 seven male ancestors and if the total of their ages when their 

 children were born does not total at least 234 years, the third 

 generation will not be eminent. Since all great men are obvi- 

 ously related to many mediocre ])ersons, some explanation for 

 their superiority mu^t exist and this theory seems to be a step 

 in solving llic riddle. Whether it is the right explanation or 

 not depemls u[)on further investigation, but we may here call 

 attention to something similar that exists in the protoplasm of 

 plants. Growers of melons and certain other vegetables are 

 aware that old seeds i)roduce more fruitful jjlant^ then do 

 young ones. A certain age or maturity of the protoplasm 

 seems to be necessary. It is well known too, that seedling 



