Show 1 marrying cousins the foran fortnightly review contains sin article by mr nir george darwin on marriages between first Coli coil cousins sins giving the ilia hes ies results suits of some researches ho he has bas recently made among the marriages of the upper classes of england there thero are incidentally brought out some bome repeating such ai as that in every seventy nine marriages in ehland england one is a smith in seventy sik six ft a jones in one hundred and fifteen a williams in one hundred d rna ana forty eight a taylor looie in ode one him dred and sixty eight a davis davis in one hundred and seventy foul four a brown in nive five hundred jefne nine a griffiths in iii fact itis orr rhese these portions por of of ther commonest names he bases based all ail his succeeding calculations having found ten per r cent of between ehte the people of or the same names he determines what whit per centon cent of these are marriages between first cousins and again what proportion theeo these bear to those between first cousins of 6 different biffle rl 1 1 names his investigations he cod 0 fines to burkes fe peerage and the landed gentry of 12 engrand arafe and aud and ireland and discovers foft nifty fifty deveo per cent of same bame name firs first cousia marriages which ishio is his hib first factor His second he het secures uli circulars mailed to the same classes provided with blank blan ko to bec bei fitter taking care cai cat ei to avoid A 4 e saine same information through gh df different gg erent 51 channels and though tue the statistics be he receive manifestly inest anus bave have been j eli ell incomplete he feels wa warranted i in taking two and three fourths per cent as Ss the proportion of or diffie different rent name first coasin marriages erom from efrom these ho determines s proportion of first fir st cousin marriages to all nil other marriages is four and one half percent a p slightly increased among amb the upper class and lowered among the common people H eo then proceeds to the asyl asylum tim to discover whether tsuch such marriages are injurious in this inquiry he lie se seems asto to have been very ably seconded by the physicians but hs table of bf ob igns appended arg are are not ve very I 1 satisfactory the testimony of a the physicians varies but ates against the popular belief dr howden goes so far xai as its to th say neither in insanity nor in any abnormal propensity do two plus two make four there Is always another actor factor f at vank neutralizing intensification fi and bringing things back to the normal brithe other hand bandi dr crichton brown says that two plus two make more than four and that even persons of similar temperaments should net not marry the investigation mr darwin darin thinks showed that in lh lunatic and hod idiot asylum asylums st probably between three and four per cent of the patients are the chil chii children dren of first cousins fand nod in the case of deaf mutes there is no evidence that the per irany is any greater than that of the doneit general population conce concerning ming the death rate of the children of first marriages mr darwin turned again reer peerage 11 1 1 and in a careful examination of thirty thirty seven families too small a total upon which to base satisfactory stati statistics stiN there remained but the shadow of evidence evide nee nce that the children of first cousin pat mab marriages possess a slightly lowered vitality which under favorable conditions would show no ill effects this h hp says bays la Is in accor dance danco with his father fathers experiments hits bits fits with inbred plants which suffer no deterioration when allowed plenty of good soil and room but pe ar become stunted other plants finally hla hia opinion ovill idu is that while certain niala dip die ydo ido take hold more easily of the off aff spring of first cousin marriages the evil has been vastly overrated while mr darwin has written jan article hr hir huth undeterred by the difficulties difficult les ler which ham haio ha hai m o bs bast ctet marriage with even the deceased cifes wires sister has bas written a book marriage of near kin rin Consi considered derel with respect to the laws of nations the results of experience Exper bance the teaching tc biology 11 with a view directly i to legislation in this gentleman gent lema iema lemans ns opinion existing prohibit prohibitions ious lous are but relics relies of asceticism the first part of the work is historical he quotes jeremy taylor who says the earlier the times the more liberty there was of or marriage with kin and passes in review egypt where a man might marry his sister persia where it was honorable to marry bih his mother and the isle of wight where a man i Is permitted to marry his niece diece of the general theory that the marriages of blood relatives relative sare are injurious it is his opinion that evils have been hastily accounted for in that way because they could net not be satisfactorily explained otherwise mr huth foi fol follows lowis mr Dar carwins wins experiments peri ments among plants and the lower animals but arrives at dafler ent conclusions the benefit crosses he be regards rather as removing inherited diseases it is negative not positive in his view there are no grounds for believing C marriages injurious 0 8 while tle the tendency of restriction 0 on general grounds is hurtful an and he insists that it is n not 0 t advisable to extend the prohibition against marriage beyond the third polla collateral pol poi lateral degree and to permit all marriages of affinity except in the direct ascending and descending lines |