The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1893-06-24
Stiffness
$50
THE MARRIAGES OF FIRST COUSINS.
DO These Unions Result In tho Deteriora-
tion Of tho Human Family?

DO These Unions Result In tho Deteriora-
tion of tho Human Family?
The lower house of the Kentucky leg
islature has declared against the mar
riage 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 is 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 iii 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 shan 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
2 Judgment of heaven upon marriages of
cousins is treated by the medical pro-
fession as superstition. Itis admitted,
however, that the children of such mar
riages that are weakminded 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-
sldered 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 u
lniasmatic district, or the unknown en-
delnic causes of cretinism. or persistent
intemperance of any kind, or frequent
intermarriage in families, or any other
of the sources of human degeneracy-
have engendered 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 or
dementia, Is but II stage in the de-
scent toward sterile idiocy, as may be
experimentally proved by the intermar-
rage of mentally unsound persons for n
generation or two, and is sometimes dem
onstrated by the disastrous consequences
of frequent intermarriage in foolish fam
lies
The principle seems to be that when
there are hereditary defects in a family
these defects are intensified in the off
spring by the marriage of two members
of the family having the same defects in
the blood. Precisely the same result fol-
lows the intermarriage of two persons
not related who have inherited similar
defects of predisposition to the same de-
feet or disease. The marriage Of two
mutes increases the probability that the
children will be mute. The marriage of
two persons of feeble minds multiplies
the chances of feeble minded offspring.
No legislative body, so far as we are
advised, has taken the responsibility of
prohibiting the marriage OF persons liv-
ing in a miasmatic district, or of those
who live in the crowded tenements of
great cities, or Of those who inherit a
predisposition to consumption, insanity
or defective senses. Yet it can hardly
be disputed that the results of such mar
riascs arc i'll the main more injurious
than those between cousins not subject
TO such disabilities. louisville Courier
Journal