The intermarriage of relatives and its consequences.

  • C. J. M.
Date:
[1890?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The intermarriage of relatives and its consequences. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    Pensylvania Institution for the Deaf and Dumb. The story it tells is simply appalling. J. Scott Hutton, Principal of the School for the Deaf in Halifax, Nova Scotia, gives a summary of cases iu that Institution, and states that— “ Out of 81 families connected with the school since its com- mencement more than one-fourth of the parents have been related in various degrees of consanguinity. In 23 families where the parents were related, there were 56 deaf children . . . One cousin marriage gives 3 deaf children, 2 of whom are imbecile, and 1 idiotic; another gives 4 deaf, 1 almost blind, and the rest with defective sight . . . Out of 110 deaf children, of whom we have definite information, 56, or fully one-half are the off- spring of cousins.” In 59 cases of deafness reported by the Illinois Institution in 1873, the parents of 42 were first cousins; of 9, second cousins ; of 5, third cousins ; of 2, fourth cousins. Dr. Dudley Peet of New York writes :— “ Of all known causes, intermarriage is the most prolific cause of predisposition to deafness. It has been settled beyond a shadow of doubt that intermarriages of first cousins, and even some of second cousins, give rise to offspring which are generally either of small size, imperfect health, or imperfect development in some part: they are either idiots, blind, club-footed, or deaf. Those offsprings of first cousins who are not, are rather the exception than the rule.” In the Report of the Pensylvania Institution for 1884, there is given the result of a “special investigation respect- ing the pupils who left their Institution during the ten years prior to 1884. Out of 344, respecting whom reliable informa- tion was received, 28 were the children of 16 couples related in blood—9 first cousins, and 7 second cousins. Of these 28 deaf children, 22, or more than 78 per cent., were born deaf—a proportion of 45 per cent, more than where no such blood-relationship existed.” Dr. S. M. Bemis, of Louisville, Kentucky, in a Report to the American Medical Association, gives the “ result of 883 instances of such marriages, collected from various quarters m America, and with the intention of embracing, as far as possible, those in which the results were favourable as well