$1000 for Data on Heredity 67 
product of several generations of early 
marriage. Data on this subject and the 
others brought up by Mr. Redfield are 
of real value to the study of heredity 
entirely apart from Mr. Redfield’s own 
interpretation of them. 
The other three items in Mr. Red- 
field’s new offer should be of particular 
interest to the students in agricultural 
colleges, who have access, in many cases, 
to the necessary records, and could 
easily investigate the question whether 
performers of great merit have been 
produced in any other way than that 
indicated by Mr. Redfield. It may be 
of interest to refer to earlier investiga- 
tions on this subject, particularly that 
of F. S. Putney! with the dairy herd 
record of Missouri Agricultural College, 
and that of F. R. Marshall? with the 
records of American trotting horses. 
Both these investigations were under- 
taken for the purpose of testing Mr. 
Redfield’s theory of heredity, and both 
failed to satisfy their authors that that 
theory is correct. 
Mr. Redfield, however, does not con- 
sider these two investigat:ons conclu- 
sive. But as many breeds of live stock 
offer ample data on the point of record 
of parents and offspring, there should 
be no difficulty, with the inducement of 
Mr. Redfield’s money offers, in getting 
abundant evidence on the question of 
whether or not great performers can 
come from poor or undeveloped per- 
formers. As Mr. Redfield says, the 
facts are capable of reasonably exact 
measurements in what he calls dynamic 
units’’—that is, in units of work per- 
formed by parents before reproducing. 
Here is Mr. Redfield’s communication 
to the JouRNAL OF HEREDITY, with the 
details of his new offer: 
MR. REDFIELD’S STATEMENT 
“In April, 1914, I offered a reward of 
$200 for evidence that any mentally 
superior human being was ever pro- 
duced by rapid breeding. The offer 
was divided into two parts in such a way 
as to make the degree of superiority 
directly dependent upon the rate of 
breeding. Thus, $100 was to be paid 
for any intellectually superior person 
produced by breeding at the rate of 
four generations to the century, and 
another $100 for any very superior 
person produced at the rate of three 
generations to the century, or faster. 
The details of the offer were published 
in the JouRNAL oF HeEreEpiry for July, 
1914. 
“The original offer expired December 
31, 1914, and was later extended to 
December 31, 1915. I am now renew- 
ing the offer for the year 1916, and at 
the same time I am doubling the amount 
of the reward offered. The offer now 
is $200 for any superior person produced 
at the rate of four generations to the 
century, and another $200 for any very 
superior person produced at the rate of 
three generations to the century. 
“In the above offer, rate of breeding 
means age of parents at time of repro- 
duction, and age of parents means the 
inheritance of acquired characters, and 
means nothing else. The age of a parent 
at the time of reproduction is the co- 
efficient of a variable, and extending it 
over three or four generations neces- 
sarily involves inheritance. 
“Tf an acquired character is to be 
inherited, the parent must make the 
acquirement first and get the offspring 
afterwards, not get the offspring first 
and make the acquirement afterwards. 
The age of parents is simply one factor 
in determining the amount of a parent’s 
acquirement at the time of reproducing. 
“In my various publications from 
1902 to 1914 I have pointed out that 
acquirements are dynamic in character 
and may be measured in dynamical 
units. I have also pointed out that 
when it comes to questions of mental 
or physical power in animals there must 
be a certain standard amount of ac- 
quirement per generation before repro- 
duction to maintain any species, breed 
or family of animals on a level—that is, 
1 Annual Reports of American Breeders’ Association, Vol. VI, pp. 310-317. Washington, D. C., 
1910. 
2 American Naturalist, January, 1909. 
