408 TRANSMISSION 



honorable racing records. The studies would be more conclu- 

 sive if they included larger numbers of examples, and if these 

 were thrown into two classes, one gotten after the records 

 were made, the other gotten by the same sires before their 

 development. 



Mr.-Redfield conceives that the sire or dam that is constantly 

 worked up to a safe limit develops thereby a larger stock of 

 what he calls "dynamic force," and that transmission is in pro- 

 portion to the extent of this force present at the time of procre- 

 ation. There is no need of involving the subject with new terms. 

 What is in Mr. Redfield's mind is doubtless the same thought 

 that lies at the basis of Cope's theory of growth force, which is 

 one of the strongest of what may be called the dynamic theories 

 of evolution. Everybody recognizes a dynamic basis in trans- 

 mission, that which is connected with the intensity of the 

 vital processes. Many forces cause that intensity to vary, and 

 the important question is whether exercise, use, extreme devel- 

 opment in the individual, is one of them. Mr. Redfield's articles 

 may be read with profit ; whether or not all his conclusions will 

 stand is another matter. The articles are chiefly useful for the 

 large mass of facts presented, which, good as they may be, are 

 not yet sufficient to maintain his theories or to answer the ques- 

 tion that horsemen would like to have settled. 



Certain outside considerations must be borne in mind in 

 studying this subject : 



1. The better the sire as to speed, the better will be his 

 opportunity to get speed, for the more numerous will be his 

 offspring and the better will be the class of mares offered. The 

 same principle holds true as to the dam, for only a good one is 

 worth the fee for a high-class stallion ; in other words, the sires 

 and dams with records have better opportunities to produce 

 than do those equally good but without records. Because of 

 this fact the get of one animal must be compared, not with that 

 of another, but with his own of a later or earlier date. 



2. Speaking generally, the get of the best horses later in life, 

 after they are known to be valuable, will be better trained and 

 better developed than the get of the same animals earlier in 

 life and in the hands of more ordinary horsemen. 



