The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1871-09-01
PHYSIOLOGICAL INCEST.
BY Mrs. CARRIE F. YorxG, NJ. D.

last three months. Why so many in
, curable diseases among children? Why
r so many shrunken limbs, enlarged
joints, deaf ears and blind eyes? Why
so many idiots? Why so many unbal
, anced brains and fearful tempers? Care
fully looking ouer the families and chill
dren Of a ward i'm the city, or town
ship in the country, there can be found
all these lamentable conditions. They
do not exist without cause and cbiet
among the causes we name the one al
the head of this article.
'Incest is defined to be the co-habita-
tion Of parties who, by reason of consan-
guinity, cannot be legally united" We
may extend this definition and say that
the rehabilitation of persons whose tenn
IpcrdmeHts and constitutions are not JDkys-
iolOgicGlly compatible is incestuous. The
union Of cousins is incestuous, not be-
cause they are cousins, but because their
kinship gives them the same tcBipcrq-
mcW, and renders them physiologically
Incompatible. The union of any two
physiologically the counterparts of these
would be equally incestuous. The Grim
inality does not attach because of con-
sanguinity, but on account of the tenn
peraments being Incompatible, of which
incompatibility the kinship is but pre-
sumptive evidence.
Nature Furnishes these violations of
her law, twisting the iniquities of the
parents upon the children even to the
third and fourth generation" and fire.
quently far beyond. OH these unwritten
histories! Who shall proclaim them
upon the house-tops? Eternal justice an
swers, 81 will, in the blighted lives of
the children Of these unholy unions"
Walking up and down the land-on
all her beautiful hills-in all her pleas
ant valleys-walking the wards of asy-
lums-thronging the offices of physi-
cians-we see evidences of physiological
incest, in idiOcy, riekets, insanity and
scrofula of every form and shape. In
jails and prisons we see lowering brows.
deficient moral faculties, and forms and
heads indicating the rule of the animal
propensities, and almost an entire alb
sence Of the finer feelings and faculties
that make men and women GOdlike. All
these are children born of parents living
in physiological incest. Weknow a fami-
ly of nine persons-seven children
where the mother has had from child
hood epileptic fits, and four of the chill
dren inherit and are now daily liable to
the same sufferings. Fortunately for
the race the curse fell upon the boys and
not yet upon the girls. a girl is not as
likely to marry man thus afflicted as
men are to marry such girls. Yet, un-
less these daughters can be guarded and
strengthened in all those directions
where this penalty of broken law is
likely to manifest itself, their children
will be very likely to inherit the same
or similar disease. The boys of that
family all show evidences of insane ali
mentativeness. Two of them gorge
themselves with meats and drinks only
to go into spasms. Notwithstanding
the expressed desire of the father to be-
come Christian, we failed to make him
understand that the sin of compelling
that mother TO bear diseased children is
a crime for which there is no atonement
"a quadruple sin against Gods holy
laws, against the mother and the child,
and against society.
This mother told us that slowly COM
ing to consciousness this thought had
for years been taking shape: at is a
sin for me to bear children" She added,
81 have begged and prayed to be saved
the pangs ami perils and certainty of
giving to innocent children this terrible
bequest. Only that 1 am coward 1
would commit infanticide."
In every town of one hundred inhab-
itants in the United States may be found
suffering, fading, tortured women, dying
by inches, to whom burning at the stake
would not be as terrible as the conscious
ness that they are doomed to be the un-
willing mothers of sickly, short-Iived
children. All these are living i'm jlhysi-
ological incest.
We know another case where, in a
family Of seven children, two are idiotic
ana blind-not one of them being perfect
OF glVlngpromiseo ofbecomingornament
10 society. Still their parents 20 on
bringing into existence more children TO
become tax upon the people. These.
TOO, are living in physiological incest.
We know another case where cousins
married. OF nine children but one could
speak, and shea hopeless invalid-was
permitted to marry, ignorant of the Lars
Of Life. She gave birth to a mute child,
which died, aged seventeen years. Eight
Of the brothers and sisters were deaf and
dumb. Not one of them lived to be
nineteen years old. This white-headed,
broken-hearted father and mother in
formed of and familiar with Gods un-
changeable laws would have conscien-
tiously asked, "Are we so organized and
adapted TO each other as TO be-when
twenty years have passed satisfied
with the results of our union?'
Too often, even with Christian people,
marriage is a means of cheaply gratify-
ing unholy passions and peeupiary am
billions, where it ought in every instance
TO be carefully, conscientiously eonsid-
cred with view to the future of their