The intermarriage of relations / by Nathan Allen.

  • Allen, Nathan, 1813-1889.
Date:
1869
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The intermarriage of relations / by Nathan Allen. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    this way to perpetuate had come to naught, and them names in history almost extinct. In the history of certain orders, such as the patricians of Rome, the no- bility of France, the peerage of England, and other aristocratic classes, where, for the sake of position, wealth, or some other consideration, intermarriages among members of the same families have frequently taken place, and this practice continued through sev- eral generations, the hereditary effects Lave generally proved unfavorable. Both the mental character and the physical organization have suffered by such alli- ances. It has been found that such classes or orders would, in time, actually run out iu offspring, if their ranks were not replenished occasionally by those mov- ing in lower or humbler spheres of life. Again: in some small islands or places remote from the thoroughfares of public travel and business, and where there is but little change in society from immigration, the practice of the intermarrying of rela- tives becomes quite common. The effects of such unions, when continued through several generations, are marked by a loss of mental power and strength, of boldness and energy of character, with an increase of scrofulous and consumptive complaints, of defects iu one or more of the senses, and not unfrequently of deformities of the body. With such a people there is not only little real improvement or progress in securing the most im- portant objects of life, but, after remaining a while in a kind of stationary state, they gradually decline both in numbers and character. This change may not be very perceptible in one generation, but, when continued through several generations, it becomes most marked both in reference to the body and the mind. Probably nowhere in the world can there be foimd more striking