The Waterbury Democrat., 1938-03-25
INBREEDING AND CROSS
 BREEDING

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 Marriage of near-of-kin is for bidden by nearly all peoples, civil ized or uncivilized. Only in ancient Egypt and Peru was marriage of brother and sister sanctioned in the royal families, because of belief the royal family were su- perior race and outside of it there were no suitable mates to be found.
 In animal husbandry some such consideration, that is, desire to perpetuate superior qualities of se- lected stock, favors inbreeding, that is, the mating of closely related individuals. But the closest possible inbreeding is the natural way of reproduction among many plants; this is known as self-pollination, in which the egg-cells of the plant are fertilized by pollen cells produced by the same individual. Self-fer- tilization or hermaphroditic repro duction occurs in some animal par asites and fishes.
 Common peas, wheat, oats and most other cereals are naturally Self-fertiliZing, and most plants thrive best that way. Maize or In- dian corn, however, seems to de- cline in size and vigor if left to self-polliniation indefinitely: but racial vigor and size may be fully restored by cross breeding - fer tiliZation of corn by pollen from a plant (obtained by self-fertiliza- tion) of distant kin.
 Animal experiments indicate that close inbreeding has no i'll effects in the earlier generations but If continued through a long line eventually brings degeneration. A steady decline both in fertility and in size and vigor or vitality finally terminates the experiment. In ani- nal economy it is generally recog- nized as essential to add new blood to the strain or family at not too great intervals to prevent this de- cline in size, vigor and reproductive capacity.
 There is no ground for the notion that monstrosities or defective chil- dren result from the mating of closely related individuals. Of course, if there is any inherent trait in the family, the marriage of first cousins, for example, would i1l- crease by a hundred per cent the chance of transmitting the trait to offspring.
 Because of the universal prohibi- ton of close intermarriage it is difficult to learn what would be the ultimate effect of close inbreeding for many generations of man-be- ginning with normal individuals. something of the sort occurred on Pitcairn Island, where ten sailors, deserters from the Bounty, es- abolished themselves, with six na- tive men and twelve native women. After twenty years the sole sur- vivors of this party, on an island one mile wide, two miles long, were one Englishman and eight or nine women and their children. After 67 years the population of the island had increased to 200-and it began to be crowded. Then the British government granted their petition and removed them to Norfolk Island where they might have more room. Fifty years later the popu- lation of Norfolk Island was 870, mostly descendants of the Pitcairn Islanders. Some of them later VOL untarily returned to Pitcairn. In all perhaps thousand persons, out of cross between English men and Tahitian women and close in- breeding among their children. So far as the experiment went the re- suits were excellent biologically and sociologically.