The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1900-05-18

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marriage, which has not only increased
the number, but decreased the vitality
of those who arc under the ban of dis
ease. We have quite number of
hereditary troubles, too numerous to
mention here, and while we are unac-
quainted with all the lines Of hereditary
faint, we have proof Of many, such n
scrofula, cancer, consumption, epilepsy,
rheumatism, govt, insanity, idiocy, al
binism and others. The definition in
some of our English dictionaries of
''hereditary" is somewhat misleading,
or not sufficiently full, as transmission
from parent to child" when we know
that children are not always actively
affected, at least. | select, therefore,
as better definition one given by DR..
B. w. Richardson, as follows: ''Heredi-
tary tendency means an organic con-
struction of body, framed during utter
inc life that is favorable to the action
of those external influences which, in
their operation upon the animal func-
tions, induced disturbed phenomena
in other words, diseases"
Speculation has been rife many
years as to what particular part of the
human economy, the hereditary pro-
clivities were seated, and until recent
years there appeared to be an almost
unanimous verdict. that the blood
alone was the part at fault, and such
expressions as "the disease is in the
blood" ancestral BLOOD" and "the
tendency runs in the blood" were en-
ployed in explaining hereditary pro-
clivities.
Recently, however, a change has
taken place among scientific investiga-
tors, and conclusions have been reach
ed that these expressions have really
no scientific basis The blood changes
are now regarded as largely temporary
and accidental 1t is conceded that
some of them may kill, and others i'm
pair the human system, and yet no
trace be found Of hereditary transmits
sion but there seems to be no perma-
nent disease of the blood directly
transmissable in hereditary descent.
The phenomena of diseases that are
truly hereditary are due, as it would
seem from all modern research, to
primary injury inflicted upon nervous
matter. 1t has been proven from Oh
servation on inferior animals, that Gin
juries inflicted upon the nervous sys-
tenn will produce symptoms which
pass to the offspring of the injured as
distinctly as if the mischief had actu-
ally been inflicted upon the offspring"
as in the case of epilepsy. How these
injuries are transmitted, on paternal
or maternal lines we have no actual
knowledge, but must be accepted as
readily as the teachings Of "revela-
| ton"
"In only one direction does light
dawn in advance of this new and re-
markable truth. 1t is observant that
the injuries to nervous matter which
are capable of producing hereditary
dioe;l, 5 must, in the first instance, be
| inflicted OF a nervous centre, or on the
trunk of nerve, and that no injury
inflicted on the peripheral expanse of
nervous matter, that expanse | mean
on which we receive all the impressions
that reach us from the outer world, is
capable Of being transmitted. Thus,
while the effects of central injuries pass
down, surface injuries and even ampu-
tations of extremities leave no mark
on the succeeding generations.
A very large, important and increas-
ing class of transmissibe diseases arise
from improper marriages. Could man
kind have proper environment and
proper regulations of marriage, these
diseases would almost as certainly be
stamped out, as smallpox, 10y univer-
sal vaccination.
We not only have inter-marriage of
pcculiarities of races, but also of dis
eases, productive Of other types, or
parts of types, and also entirely new
diseases, which spring into life by I'M
equal marriages. By unequal mar
riages, mean where one party or both
have the germ of hereditary and trans
Missile trouble. An impression large
ly prevails, though not so universal as
formerly, that danger only arises from
the marriage of cousins, when the
truth is the inter marriage of cousins
is only secondary consideration.
Where there is no transmissible family
faint, there is no danger. The con-
tracing parties must have the trans
Missile germ, or injury, and this holds
good, not onl y in the case of cousins,
but in all cases even if the parties he
from "Greenland's icy mountains, or
India coral strands"
The marriages most provocative of
disease are those in which both parties
are inheritors of the SAM disease; "as
where both are disposed to consump
ton, to cameron insanity. Uuler these
circumstances it is all but impossible
for the majority of the offspring to es-
cape the inherited disease. Inter-mar
rages of distinct diseases are hardly |
less dangerous. The inter-marriage of