Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1885-10-14
INTERMARRIAGE OF COUSINS.
The Light of Statistics on the wis.
dom of the Practice.

This is question often asked of us, anC
it invites discussion which is especially
pertinent now, when the subject of he
redlty is engaging so much attention
among men of science, and only the Other
day was treated with great ability by Dr.
Francis Cation in an address before the
British Association:
81 am in love with one of my first cou.
sins, and am certain she returns nv
love. wish to know what are the OBJ
]ectIons to such marriage, if any?''
The usual objection to the intermarriage
| OF cousins is that they are likely to trans
init to their children in an exaggerated
form any bodily or mental defects thew
may have inherited from common ances-
tors. 1t is the breeding in and in which
is looked upon as dangerous.
Only statistics as to the actual results
OF such marriages can determine how far
the objection to them is sound; but, I'm
fortunately, they have not vet been
gathered on scale sufficiently extensive
to enable us to arrive at a conclusion
which can be edscientific. When the
Census Act for 1871 was passing through
the English House of Commons, Sir John
Lubbock and Sir Lyon Playfair, both
eminent men of science, endeavored to
have inserted provision directing that
statistics be obtained as to the prevalence
OF marriages between cousins, with a view
OF getting exact data by which to test the
theory that such marriages are mentally
and physically deleterious to the offspring.
But this proposal was treated as a Joke.
and was rejected amid laughter by the
House.
In 1878, however, Mr.. G. III. Darwin
son OF the great naturalist, Charles Oar
win. undertook to gather the necessary
statlstlcs on his own account OF course
ms Investigations were only partial, but
so lar as it went it seemed to show that
COUSIN marriages were not so FREQUENT
as a, was generally supposed, and that
their Ill effects were not so great as
they were held to be by common con-
sent.. Alter an examination of the
marriages announced for a series of
years IN London newspaper, land care
ful study OF Burke's Landed Gentry''and
English and Irish Peerage," and the
sending out OF eight hundred letters of
he came to the conclusion that
among the arlstocracy the proportion of
hrst-cousln marriages to all marriages is
only 1our-and-a-half per cent, among the
middle and upper middle classes abont
three-and-a-half per cent, and in LON
don, comprising all classes, about one
per cent. 1t is obvious whv
these marriages are most frequent amono |
the arlstocracy, who are led into them bv |
The desire to keep together and to con-
solldate property.
HIS inquiries in the insane asylums
led him to conclude that the percentage
Of the offspring of cousin marriages in
such institutions "is not greater than
hat IN the general population to sucb an
extent as to enable one to saw posit;veiu
hat marriage of first cousins has any
eject IN the production of insanity ~
diocy." The proportion of deaf m';to VI
i Il also found, lis precisely the same as
ne proportion OF such marriages for the
arge towns and the country, therefore
mere is no evidence whatever of any III
esu!ts accrulng to the offspring from the
ouslnshlp OF their parents" He dis
GI.vereo' however, "some evidence of q
nightly lowered vitality among the off.
prlng OF first COUSINS" and came to the
eneral conclusion that, although "the
VII has been much exaggerated. there
re nevertheless grounds Tor assertino
nat various maladies take an easv hold
the offspring of consanguineous MARI ART
ges" 'o' ilarrl- .
Our enamored young friend now has tho :
acts before him, so far as they have bean
!. otalnec, IN regard to the conseouencos ]
marriages with first cousins. and ba o"n
ecioe whether he is justified in the ya 90
IRE. But unless he and his cousin sw COT
cart are strong and sound in bodu s vet
nd mind, they should at once Owe uei We
loughts of the union they now se el ne,u up
eslre.-N. Y Sun. -" % ihuch