Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-03-05
INTERMARRIAGE OF DEAF-MUTES.
Professor Bells Statistical Report on the
LAWS Of Heredity.

Prof!A. Graham Bell, well known to the
public as the inventor of the telephone, but
perhaps deserving even more of science from
his admirable studies on the phenomena of
speech and the conditions of deafness. has re-
Gently prepared, at the suggestion Of Senator
Hale, report concerning the methods to be
followed in the forthcoming census of 1890 in
taking account of the defective classes of our
population. By defective classes is meant those
who are deficient in intelligence, in sight, hear
ing or the power of speech. Prof. Bells
Communication relates IN the main, to
the unfortunates who are at once deaf
and dumb. His work shows certain la
mentable results which are coming
about through the growing habit of
I marriage relations between men and women
who suffer from the same malady. Prof Bell
states that the facts in his possession show that
intermarriage between deaf mutes began in
the year 1919, and that the percentage of these
intermarriages has grown continuously, until at
present about 80 per cent of all such unfortu-
mates wed with those who are similarly affect
ed. Prof Bells statistics include ], 443 cases in
which deaf mutes have married. In II of these
marriages the deaf mutes were welded to per-
sons of ordinary hearing power, and ,372, or 95
per cent, Of the marriages were between deaf
mutes. The natural result of this unhappy
union of similarly affected people has been a
rapid increase in the percentage of deaf mutes
| In proportion to the adult population.
Prof. Bell well shows that '.the laws of he
redity indicate that If these deaf people should
| marry congenitally deaf husbands or wives, an
| increased proportion of deaf offspring will ap-
| pear in the next generation, and that the con-
| tinuous intermarriage of congenital deaf mutes
| from generation to generation may ultimately
result in the formation of a deaf variety of the
| human race in America, in which all or most
| of the children will be born deaf" Prof. Bell
| in his report, gives many other important sug-
| gestions concerning the census of the blind,
| idiotic and insane. If his project is carried
| out, we shall obtain better record of the de-
| fective members of our society than has
| ever before been secured in this or
! other countries. It is impossible to fol-
| low out the suggestions on all
| these several points, but one cannot forbear to
| point to the important moral which is evidently
| indicated by his statements concerning the in
| termarriage of deaf mutes. There is no in
| herent reason why the children of parents who
| are deaf should inherit the disability common
| to their immediate ancestors any more than
| they should receive by Transmission any other
| quality whatsoever. Whatever be the defect
on the part of the parents in body mind. if it
| be shared by both alike, there is some approx
nation to certainty that their offspring will
inherit the common misfortune. In other
words, there is a lesson concerning the laws of
marriage relation in these statistics which
Prof. Bell has gathered that deserves to be
spread wide among all people.