The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1867-03-12
Marriage OF blood ReIatIon..


The commissioners of the Kentucky
Institution for the education and train
ing oil feeble minded children, at Frank
lori, haVejust made their annual report
to the Legislature. These commission
ers are persons Thoroughly competept
to judge of the matter which they con-
slider, being the Principals of the asv-
lums for Deaf Mutes and the Blind and
the Superintendent of the Eastern Hos
pital of the Insane. at Lexington
Against the marriage of blood relations,
which is frequent in Kentucky, they
protest in the following emphatic man
ner:
A subject OF very great social impor-
tRnce is brought incidentally to notice
in the report; the eintermarriage of per-
sons nearly related. I'VE deem il, :"
says the report, "Our duty to the inter-
ests of humanity, as well as to the pc
cuuiary interest OF the State, to bear
our testimony, in addition to the album
dant statistics heretofore collected and
published by physicians and philan-
thropis:s, and to the observation of
every close observer, as well as to gen.
eral considerations OF propriety, that u
large per centRge of the deaf mutes and
of the blind, a limited per centageof lu-
natics, and no doubt, a much larger one
than either, of the feeble-minded or
idiotic children, are the offspring of the
marringe of first cousins. Our chari-
table institutions are filed with chill
dren all the time whose parents are so
related-sometimes as many as four
from one family; and we have known
in the case of idiots, of a still larger
number in family. 1t is fearful
penalty to which persons so related rem
IL IL I.
matrimonial relation, and, which they
in nearly every instance, incur, not in
deed in all, but in one or more of their
offspring. Instances, we do not deny,
may be shown where a portion OF the
children-one or more-maV inherit
from both parents, were possessed of
high mental and bodily endowments of
common origin, enhanced and re-
markable qualities of body and mind;
but II is generally at the eX pense of un-
fortunate and deeply afflicted brothers
and sisters. We believe few instances
can be given where such enhanced en-
dowments are common to all the Off
spring; while instances are not unfre-
quent where nearly all, in a few, per-
haps, every child is afflicted either in
bsdy or mind, and sometimes in both.
The State has, in large majority of
cases, to educate, and often support for
life, these afflicted children. Has she
TO interpose her authority to prevent
matrimonial alliances, so productive of
private calamity and public injury? Tne
state is thereby not only defrauded of
the labor, usefulness energy, and intel
ligence OF Il considerable portion of her
citizens, but she has, in addition, the
burden of their education and support,
and in the case of uneducated idiots,
their support for life, thus unreasona-
bly, superinduced, upon her. The un-
fortunate, by unavoidable casualty,
she must and ought cheerfully to pro-
vide for; but surely she is not bound, in
reason and good policy, to legaIize
marriages so productive of private and
public damage. Indeed it is preposter-
Gus, not to say wrong, that she should
do it. A law of few lines would cut
of, henceforward, the expenditure of
thousands of dollars for the support of
the offspring of marriages OF first
cousins, as well as prevent the burden
of lifetime of sorrow and regret in
many estimable families. We desire
to say, emphatically, that this opinion
is not theory, but is based upon well |
assertained and indubitable facts.