94 



The Journal of Heredity 



"The persons you mention arc 



1. Fric'drich Wilhclm, Crown Prince of 



Germany. 



2. Napoleon 11 of France. 



3. Louise, Queen of Denmark. 



4. G. \V. C. Lee, president of Washington 



and Lee University. 



5. R. L. Dennison, born 1^01. 



6. Eitel, son of German Crown Prince. 



7. W. L. E. Waller, born 1741. 



8. Benjamin Waller, born 1762. 



"The objections are: 



"First, the persons named are not 

 among 'the 2000 or 3000 intellectually 

 eminent men known to histor\',' whose 

 names are recorded in ordinary en- 

 cylopedias because of intellectual 

 achievements. Not all royal personages 

 noted in c>-cloi)edias are there because 

 of their intellectual superiority. 



"Second, the pedigrees given are 

 neither complete pedigrees, nor in the 

 tail-male line for partial pedigrees. 



"The generations of the offer are 

 periods of time between parent and 

 offspring. Except in the last case, you 

 give four such periods, and conse- 

 quently four generations instead of five 

 as you re]3resent it. 



"Examples of breeding much more 

 rapid than those you give are quite 

 common, as among the 'Jukes' and 

 other degenerate families of the United 

 States ; also in Asia, Africa and Polynesia. 

 Marriages between boys less than 17 

 and girls less than 15 are the ordinary 

 thing in many i^laces. But the trouble 

 with that kind of breeding is that it 

 does not produce superior individuals. 

 When we come to the greatest men, 

 they are not produced when the breed- 

 ing is as rapid as three generations to 

 the century. My money offer was for 

 the purpose of finding any ])ossible 

 exception, if it existed." 



The only other re]:)ly of interest was 

 from Mrs. Elizabeth A. Sourdry of 3404 

 Morgan street, St. Louis, Mo., who 

 submitted the pedigrees of Wilhelm II, 

 emperor of Germany, William Henr\-, 

 fourth Duke of Portland, and Charles 

 William Henry, fourth Duke of Buc- 

 cleueh and sixth Duke of Queensberry. 

 In each case three generations of the 

 ancestry covered less than a century of 

 time. Mrs. Sourdry sent co])ies of the 

 genealogies directly to Mr. Redfield 

 who in re]jly wrote her as follows: 



"The first objection is tliat these men 

 are mental mediocrities and not intel- 

 lectual giants. William II is prominent 

 because he inherited the position of 

 emperor, but he has to his credit no 

 intellectual achievements. If you are 

 going into royalty I think that you 

 should take such men as Augustus, 

 Peter the Great or Gustavus Adolphus. 



SOME GREAT MIXDS. 



"Consider Mo.ses, who not only 

 controlled an unruh' mob but who 

 formulated moral laws and regulations 

 which are good after nearly 3,500 years. 



"Consider Confucius, whose intellect 

 produced the moral ])reecpts which have 

 guided hundreds of millions for more 

 than 2,500 years. 



"Consider Aristotle, who was the 

 main scientific authority for the world 

 for more than 1,000 years. 



' ' Imagine a sickly little fellow sitting 

 in Washington and changing this re- 

 public into a monarch}' by the sheer 

 force of his intellect. Imagine his 

 influence with Congress being so great 

 that the country would officially confer 

 on him a title certifying the profound 

 respect all entertained for his surpassing 

 wisdom. That would be Augustus of 

 Rome. 



"A poor boy without the advantages 

 of schooling became great as an author, 

 great as an editor, great as an inventor, 

 great as a diplomat and great as a 

 statesman; he drew the lightning from 

 the clouds and was honored by all of 

 the scientific societies in the world. 

 That was Benjamin Franklin. 



"Humboldt was credited with being 

 an authority in all known sciences. 

 Darwin revolutionized the ideas of the 

 world as to how the different kinds of 

 plants and animals (including man) 

 came into existence. Sitting in his 

 study Le\'errier could locate an unknown 

 ])lanct and give its size and orbit. 

 Mendeleef fonnulated the periodic table 

 and from it predicted the atomic weights 

 and chemical properties of substance 

 then unknown to science. J.J. Thomson 

 has revolutionized our ideas of the 

 constitution of matter. 



"My offer related to this kind of 

 men — men who were famous for intel- 

 lectual power — the greatest intellects 



