Rensselaer Republican, Volume 19, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 June 1887 — The Marriage of Cousins. [ARTICLE]

The Marriage of Cousins.

From the physician’s point of view, the evidence from the animal world is important, Hore there is almost consensus, that, while the effect of “in-and-in breeding” is to intensify points, In the long run it is opposed to vigor of constitution. It is to be remembered that every breeder takes care to exclude any animals with any known morbid tendency, while, on the contrary, in the r/enu.s homo, as Dr. Clouston remarks, there seems to be “a special tendency’ for members of neurotic families to intermarry.” The result of this will be that in some portions of the population the offspring of such marriages will show the evil results of it to an unusual extent. And thus we find that in rural, and especially in mountainous districts, where the population is small and fixed, the comparative amount of idiocy is greater than elsewhere. Statistical information is inadequate on the subject; the motion to include it in the census returns of England was rejected “amidst the scornful laughter of the House, on tlie ground that the idle curiosity of speculative philosophers was not to be gratified." In France the returns have given rise to various estimates (varying from 9-10 to 24 or 3 per cent.) of the frequency of consanguineous marriages. Mr. G. H. Darwin came to the conclusion that in London 14 per cent, of all marriages were between first cousins, in suburban districts 2 cent., and in rural districts 2| per cent. If, now, we ascertain the ratio of idiots and insane patients that are the offspring of such inarriages to the total number of patients in the asylums, xve will have some means of estimating the results of consanguinity. From quite an extended series of records it is concluded that the ratio just referred to in the idiot asylums is from 3 to 5 per cent., hence “first-cousin marriages, at any rate, are to some extent favorable to the production of idiot children.” But this conclusion must be tempered by the consideration that in a large number of such cases of idiocy and imbecility other causes for this condition are present; and this consideration leads Dr. A. Mitchell to the opinion that “under favorable conditions of life the apparent ill effeeto of consanguineous marriages were frequently almost c nil, while, if the children were ill-fed, badly housed and clothed, the evil might become very marked.” From such facts and figures xve may conclude that first-cousin marriages should, as a rule, be discouraged; but that, if close scrutiny reveals no L heritable weakness, neurotic dr otherwise, the banns need not invariably be forbidden. —Science.