Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1885-10-14
IsTERMARRIAGE OF COUSINS.
The light of Statistics Oh the Wis.
dom OS the Practice.

This is II question often asked of us, and
it invites discussion which is especially
pertinent now, when the subject of he
redty is engaging SO much attention
among men of science, and ONLY the other
day was treated with great ability by DR..
Francis Gallon in an address before the
British Association
81 am in love with one of my first cou-
sins, and / am certain she returns my
love. l wish to know what are the OBJ
jecti IS 10 such a marriage, if any?"
TAe usual objection to the intermarriage
OF cousins is that they are likely to trans
init to heir children in an exaggerated
form any bodily or mental defects they
may have inherited from common ances-
tors. 1t is the breeding in and in which
is looked upon rs dangerous.
Only statistics rs to the actual results
OF such marriages can determine how far
the objection to them is sound; but, I'M
fortunately, they have not yet been
gathered on scale sufficiently extensive
to enable us to arrive at conclusion
which can be called scientific. 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, cndeavored to
have inserted n provision directing that
statistics be obtained as to the prevalence
OF marriages between cousins, with view
OF getting exact data by which to test the
theory that such marriages are mentally
and physically deleterous to the offspring
But this proposal was treated as a Joke,
and was rejected amid laughter by the
House.
In 1873, however, Mr.. G. H. Darwin, a
son OF the great naturalist, Charles Oar
win, undertook to gather the necessary
statistics on his own account OF course
his Investigations were only partial, but
30 lar rs 1t went it seemed to show that
cousin marriages were not so frequent
as was generally supposed, and that
their i'll effects were not so great as
they were held to be by common con-
sent. After an examination of the
marriages announced for Il series of
years in London newspaper and u care
! full study OF Burke's LANDED Gentry''and
"English and Irish Peerage," and the
sending out OF eight hundred letters of
inquiry, he came to the conclusion that
among the aristocracy the proportion of
frst-cousin marriages to all marriages is
only iour-and-a-half per cent, among the
middle and upper middle classes about
thrce-and-a-hali per cent, and in Lon
don, comprising all classes about one
and-a-half per cent 1t is obvious WHY
these marriages are most frequent among
the arlstocracy, who are led into them by
the desire to keep together and 10 con-
solidate property.
Ills inquiries in the insane asylums
led him to conclude that the percentage
OF the offspring OF cousin marriages in
such institutions sis not greater than
that in the general population to such an
extent MS to enable one TO say positively
that marriage of first cousins has any
effect in the production Of insanity or
lldiocy." The proportion OF deaf mutes.
he also found, sis precisely the same as
the proportion oil such marriages for the
large towns and the country, therefore,
there is no evidence whatever of any iii
resul Is accruing TO the offspring from the
cousinship of their parents" He dis.
covered, however, "some evidence of "A
slightly lowered vitality among the off
spring OF first cousins" and came 10 the
general conclusion that, although "the
eYll has been much exaggerated, there
are nevertheless grounds ior asserting
mat various maladies take I'M easy hold
oil the offspring Of consanguineous marri-
ages"
Our cnamored young friend now has the
FACTS before him, so far as they have been
obtained, in regard to the consequences
OF marriages with first cousins, and he can
decide whether he is justified in the ven
ture. But unless he and WISCONSIN sweet
heart are strong and sound in body, nerve
and mind, they should at once give up
thoughts OF the union they now so much
desire.-N. Y. Sun.