Fairhaven herald. [volume] (Fairhaven, Wash.) 1890-????, 1893-06-22
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THE MARRIAGES OF FIRST COUSINS.
Do These Unions Result In the Deteriora-
ton of the Human Family?

Do These Unions Result In the Deteriora-
tion of the Human Family
The lower house of the Kentucky leg
islature has declared against the mar
siage of cousins on the ground that chill
dren of such marriages are frequently
weakminded.
1t is true that the children of cousins
that have intermarried are sometimes
weakminded, and it is also true that
they sometimes have certain congenital
defects, such as extra toes, defective
senses, etc. 1t ia also true that children
having similar defects are often born of
parents not at all related. The majority
of marriages of persons related, however,
do not result in such defective offspring.
To what extent the law should inter
vene in matters of this kind has always
been mooted question. Generally it
has been content to prohibit marriages
within the Levitical degrees-that is,
marriages between persons nearer akin
than first cousins. A number of states
have gone further than this and have for
hidden first cousins to marry. These laws
are largely evaded by going beyond the
borders of the state to contract mar
riages not lawful at home. The general
principle of law that marriages lawful
where celebrated are lawful everywhere
aids this evasion.
The notion that defective offspring is
a judgment of heaven upon marriages of
cousins is treated by the medical pro-
fession as a superstition. tits admitted,
however, that the children of such mar
riages that are wealzminded or Of de-
fective physical developments are some
what more numerous than in the case Of
marriages between persons not related
But the physicians tell us that the same
thing is true of other classes OF marriages.
An extract from Maudsley, who is con-
sidered high authority on such questions,
throws some light upon the subject:
"When some of the evil influences
which notably give rise to disease
whether the poisoned atmosphere of a
miasmatic district, OF the unknown en-
denic causes of cretinism, or persistent
incompetence of any kind, or frequent
intermarriage in families, or any other
of the sources of human degeneracy-
have engendered a morbid variety, the
evil will, unless counteracted by better
influences brought to bear, increase
through generations until degeneration
has gone so far that the continuance
of the species is impossible. Indeed
insanity of whatever form soever
mania, melancholia, moral insanity OF
dementia, is but stage in the de
scent toward sterile idiocy, as may be
experimentally proved by the intermar
rage of mentally unsOund persons for {
generation or two, and is sometimes dem
onstrated by the disastrous consequence
of frequent intermarriage in foolish fam
lilies"
The principle seems to be that whef
there are hereditary defects in a family
these defects are intensified in the off
spring by the marriage Of two member
Of the family having the same defects il
the blood. Precisely the same result fol
lows the intermarriage of two person
not related who have inherited simila
defects of predisposition to the same de
feet or disease. The marriage of tw,
mutes increases the probability that tn
children will be mute. The marriage o
two persons of feeble minds multiple
the chances of feeble minded offspring
No legislative body, so far as we ar
advised, has taken the responsibility o
prohibiting the marriage of persons iv
ing in a miasmatic district, or of thos
who live in the crowded tenements o
great cities, or of those who inherit
predisposition to consumption, insanit
or defective senses. Yet it can hardl
be disputed that the results of such MAJ
riages are in the main more injuriou
than those between cousins not subjeC
to such disabilities. louisville Courier
Journal