The general practitioner and deaf mutism / by Duncan Matheson Mackay.

  • Mackay, Duncan Matheson.
Date:
1908
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The general practitioner and deaf mutism / by Duncan Matheson Mackay. 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.

    15/18 page 13
    and Mr. Thomson showed, in his paper read before the Anthro- pological Institute, that “ from the Fijian point of view, the relationship between children of two brothers, or of two sisters, is exactly the same as the relationship between children of the same parents,” and therefore marriage between two such children is strictly forbidden. On the other hand, cousins of opposite sex, of whom the father of one is brother to the mother of the other, are said to be “ concubitants,” that is to say, marriage between them is not only encouraged, it is obligatory. Mr. Thomson then detailed his examination of the census figures, taken with a view to the study of results of Fijian marriages, from which he found that, as to both fecundity and vitality of offspring, the marriages between concubitants are greatly superior to those between relations (not concubitants), or between fellow-townspeople (not related), or between natives of different towns. In contrast with this, it appeared that, as to fecundity and vitality of offspring again, marriages between relations (not concubitants) are greatly inferior to those of any other class. This consideration, applied to the investigation of deaf mutism, means the preparation of entirely new statistics ; and if this is done, it may reconcile the present discordant opinions. If this position is accepted, namely, that about 50 per cent, of the cases of deaf mutism are the result of marriages, either— (1) amongst those who have cases of deaf mutism in their families, either direct or collateral, or (2) amongst those who are blood relations, it is the duty of general practitioners, a duty which they will not seldom have an opportunity of practising, to do all in their power to discourage such marriages. This is, of course, a counsel of perfection, but there are people amongst the deaf, as amongst the hearing, who are prepared to sacrifice their pleasure to their duty in this respect, if only they know clearly what that duty is. Others, of course, will not hearken to us or to anyone else, and as at present the State is not ready to forbid such marriages, we are all more or less helpless. All that we can do therefore is, as Kerr Love concludes,30 to see distinctly before us the goal to be attained to, and try to encourage others to aim at it also.
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