CONSANGUINEOUS MARRIAGES 



257 



in which the parents came from different countries. The results 

 are here given in tabular form: 



Relative Fecundity of Pure-Bred and Half-Bred Families in Minneapolis 



The differences between the sizes of homogamic and hetero- 

 gamic marriages are striking. But are they due to differences in 

 the natural fertility or like and unlike unions? It is especially 

 noteworthy that the number of native Americans given in the 

 table is far greater than any other nationality. It is also note- 

 worthy that there are great differences in the size of the families 

 among the people in different countries, differences which are 

 probably due to a small extent to physiological causes, but are 

 mainly the result of other factors which have been discussed in a 

 previous chapter. In a marriage between a Dutch man or woman 

 and a person of another nation the chances are, other things 

 equal, that the person would be an American, owing to the nu- 

 merical proponderance of the latter stock. Since the size of the 

 American family is notoriously small, the influence of American 

 custom would be a strong element in determining the number of 

 children hi the mixed marriage. Persons from nationalities with 

 large families, if marrying outside their group, would be apt to 



