No. 505] SHORTER ARTICLES AND CORRESPONDENCE 51 



The following is from Mr. C. L. Redfield's recapitulation of 

 his theory published in the Horse World, issue of February 27, 

 1906: 



I said that I took one thousand registered stallions, alphabetically, 

 from the Index Digest of the Register, and calculated the ages of their 

 sires at the time when these registered stallions were foaled. From 

 these I determined that the average time between generations in the 

 male line was 10.43 years, which would give the average age of sires 

 as 9.43 years at the time of service. I then said that, making all 

 reasonable allowances for errors, the average time between generations 

 in the male line might be set down as between 10 and 11 years, and 

 that this period might be used as a standard in testing the age part 

 of the theory. So far no one claims to have tested the accuracy of 

 my calculation; no one claims that the figures I gave were wrong; and 

 no one has said that these figures can not properly be used as a stand- 

 ard; yet if I am to be controverted, one of the first things to be done 

 is to dispute the accuracy of my standard. 



I then took the entire list of 2.10 trotters as an appropriate class 

 of animals to be used in testing the inheritance of dynamic develop- 

 ment, and I calculated the ages of their male progenitors for four 

 generations. The number of animals involved was over five thousand 



the production of 2.10 trotters as being approximately 14.00 years. 

 This is an average of nearly 40 per cent, over the standard average 

 determined from the Register, and my explanation of this remarkable 

 difference was that it indicated the inheritance of acquired dynamic 

 development. So far no one has disputed the accuracy of my com- 

 putation and no one has attempted to give any other explanation of 

 such an unusual divergence from the natural order of things. 



Am I right or am I wrong? If I am wrong will some one please 

 come forward with a better explanation. 



It is to be noted that in the case of the average horses repre- 

 sented by the first thousand in the Index I)'uj<st, the ;iLres of 

 their immediate sires only were computed, and found to average 

 9.43 years; whereas in the case of the horses in the 2.10 list 

 all the sires appearing in the first four generations were brought 

 in. Assuming 14 years to be correct for the average time be- 

 tween generations, this carries us back 56 years. 



The first horse that was uniformly successful as a sire of 

 speed was Hambletonian 10 foaled in 1849. In the sixties this 

 horse's reputation as a sire of speed was established and he 

 did heavy stud service until the time of his death in 1873. 



