The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-01-29
OFFERS S1OOOF0R
 EVOLUTION PROOFS
Genetic Society Wants Ex- amples of Certain Effects
 of Heredity


 Washington, January 2S-(Specialo One thousand dollars is offered for in formation that may show how evolution takes place, in an announcement today by the American Genetic association.
 There is no longer any room for doubt that evolution does take place. according to this body of scientists. But there is still debate on the question of just how it works, and to settle this question more information is needed.
 Such information is believed by c. L. Redfield, Chicago member, to be in the hands of psychologists, live stock breed CTS, college students and naturalists, and in order to enlist the cooperation of these people he has offered through the Journal of Heredity, organ of the Ameri- can Genetic association, five rewards ot $200 each.
 He will pay $2oO for evidence that any one of the 2OOO or 5000 intellectually great men or women of history was the prod uct of an ancestry which represented, on the average, four generations to cen tury.
 He will pay another $200 for evidence that any one of the 200 or 300 extraordi- narly great men or women was the product of an ancestry which represented on the average three generations to century.
 MT. Redfield holds that intellectual greatness can not occur in conJunctlon with series of early reproductions, and these offers are intended to draw out ln- formation that point.
 Members of the American Genetic asso- citation have for the past year been lnVes- tgating this question, and have found that most great men come from old par ents They have been able to discover put two cases of eminent men where the ancestry represented on the average, as little as 8 years to generation. lhese are William the Conqueror and Fredeflck the Great. If there are any other great men in the history of the world who were the products of several generations of early reproduction, MT. Redheld wants to find out the circumstances.
 In his view of evolution, every animal inherits some of the results of work done by it's parents, and this leads to the be- lief that the parents which are Workeu hardest and longest produce the best oft- spring. If the parents are never devel- oped by work he thinks their offspring will have no chance of being superior
 He accordingly offers $200 for evidence from live stock breeding, which Will show that where the parents made ac- uuirements which were distinctly below the standard, in respect to work per formed, the offspring SurpasSeu lne par ents.
 He believes indeed, that the offspring will fall below the standard of the breed in any case where the requirements or the parents were distinctly below the standard Accordingly, he will pay $20o for evidence that offspring ever failed to fall below the standard in such a case.
 ba will So00 if it be shown for any group of animals, that the amount of improvement or decline Tn animal powers was not as nearly as can be determined by the actual records, eX- actly proportional to the amount of ac- qurement by ancestors above or pe'oW the normal or standard.
 The last three cases can be investigated te good advantage in the records of race horses and dairy cows since in each case it is easy to determine just what the performance of the parents was, and also just what the performance of the off spring was.
 Men of great ability rise from com mon stock" says MT. Redfield; many horses of the present day trot much faster than any horse was capable O1 trotting 50 years ago; cows frequently produce many more pounds of milk in seven days than was the utmost capa- bility of any of their great granddams and dogs under test in field trials show more class than any of their ances tors. The claim is made that every case of this kind arose by the inheritance of excess development acquired before re- producing. and that it is impossible to increase the mental or physical powers of any kind of animal in any other way than by the inheritance of such acquire ments. If any one can show the con- trary he can capture my money
 The American Genetic association of this city, which will receive all evidence submitted, will also furnish information as to the exact points which should be investigated, to throw light on the way in which evolution takes place.