The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1889-06-20
SHOULD COUSINS WED.
Prominent Physicians Declare Inter-Mar-
rage to be Unwise.

The widespread prejudice against
consanguineous unions is exceedingly
stubborn, but certain writer's of to-day,
including Haeckel, have endeavored to
show that it rests upon no well-au-
thenticated facts. They claim that the
misshapeu and imperfect offspring of
such marriage is due not to the union
of like blood, but of like physical and
mental tendencies. Consanguinity it,
self, they say, plays no particular role
in the union of individuals of the same
stock, but it increases in the descend
ants the tendencies common to the two
progenitors. If these tendencies be
good they will be intensified in the
child, and hence the union will be ad-
vantageous. If they be bad re-en-
forcement of unfavorable tendencies
should be suppressed by the avoidance
of such marriages.
Yet there are on record numerous
cases of blindness, deafness and de-
formity in the children of nearly re-
lated parents. Sterility sometimes re-
suits, or if children are born they may
be punY, feeble and spiritless or with a
tendency to idioey. A prominent ply
sician has compiled statistics that show
that out of 14,257 idiots nearly 13 per
cent, were children of cousins. The
percentage of deaf and dumb children
born of parents related by blood is only
a trifie less, and out of 1878 blind per-
sons he has found that per cent can
trace their defect to consanguineous
union. Insane mania is much less
frequent resultant of such unions, as
| out OF nearly Is, 900 cases examined he
finds less than 2 per cent due to that
cause. Among the inmates of a blind
asylum several years ago were five
| children of one marriage of cousins,
all born sightless.
Epilepsy, tuberculosis and consump-
tion are effects not uncommon, and in
stances are on record of the propoga-
ton OF almost every known form of
disease through this medium. Nor is
it unusual for two or more forms of
disease to be allied in one child. In
late years a girl was admitted to the
Pennsylvania Institution for Deaf and
Dumb, who, in addition to being stone
deaf and speechless, was horribly de-
formed. Inquiry elected the fact that
the father and mother were cousins.
A physician who had made a close
study of the subject said that he had
often observed in the cases Of offspring
OF consanguineous unions where actual
disease was absent tendency to awk-
wardness and dullness. Children were
apt to be undersized, with fat, stubby,
short-fngered hands and ill-developed
limbs. Though children with fine
forms and brilliant intellects often fol-
lowed these marriages he believed thev
were exceptional, and that the mar
riage of cousins was fraught with
great danger. Their offspring was liza
bic to be endowed with mental, phys
ical and moral deformity.
''The best evidence of the evil effects
of the intermarriage of kim" said a
leading gynecologist, sis to be had by
a glance at the royal families of Eu.
rope. One can not doubt that there il
a tendency to deterioration when he
considers the unfortunate house o.
Hapsburg and remembers that the
King of Bavaria is in mad house
that the present Emperor of Germany
is victim tc tuberculosis, and that hi:
fathers disease was due in part to the
poison of the intermixed blood of the
Hohenzollerns. Sickly and imbeeilt
Princes have for centuries bore witnes:
to the danger that lies in the union O
cousins. A careful observer of animal.
will note the same tendency to degen
eracy. The lion and the lioness al
at the Zoo have repeatedly borne cleft
tongued cubs. Not one of their numer
Gus progeny have been exempt from
this defect, and feel confident that the
parent lions are brother and sister, anC
that in that fact lies the cause of tht
invariably imperfect offspring"
DR.. Chaplin, superintendent of Kirk
brides Insane Asylum, believes tina
actual insanity very rarely follows al
an effect of marriage of near kin
Idiocy and imbecility, he says, fre
quently result, and the patient may b,
afflicted with maniacal paroxysms, bu
he has never known case of actua
insanity that was directly traceable tt
this cause.-Philadelphia Record.