262 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



be more careful, and the statistics far more extensive, than any which 

 have yet been recorded. 



THE DEAF AND DUMB. 



In a paper recently presented to the French Academy, Dr. Boudin 

 gives the following curious statistics: Marriages of blood-relations 

 form about two per cent, of all marriages in France ; the deaf and 

 dumb offspring, by birth, of consanguineous marriages are in proportion 

 to the deaf and dumb born in ordinary wedlock ; at Lyons, at least 

 twenty-five per cent ; at Paris, at least twenty-eight per cent ; at Bor- 

 deaux, at least thirty per cent. 2. The proportions of the deaf and 

 dumb, by birth, increase with the degree of blood-relationship. If the 

 danger of having a deaf and dumb child in ordinary marriage, repre- 

 sented by figures, is one, there will be eighteen in marriages between 

 first cousins; thirty-seven in marriages between uncles and nieces; 

 seventy in marriages between nephews and aunts. 3. At Berlin we find 

 thirty-one deaf and dumb on ten thousand Catholics, six deaf and dumb 

 on ten thousand Protestants, twenty-seven deaf and dumb on ten thou- 

 sand Jews. In other words, the proportions of the deaf and dumb born 

 grow with the facility religion affords to consanguinity in marriage. 4. 

 In 1848, twenty-three deaf and dumb born often thousand whites were 

 counted in the territory of Iowa (U. S.), and two hundred and twelve 

 deaf and dumb among ten thousand slaves ; a shocking proof how little 

 our social, moral and religious laws are considered valid for the slaves. 

 5. The misfortune of being born deaf and dumb falls not always direct- 

 ly from parents wedded in consanguinity ; it appears sometimes indi- 

 rectly from marriages in which one of the parents issued from wedlock 

 between blood-relations. 6. The most healthy parents, but related in 

 blood, may have deaf and dumb children ; while deaf and dumb par- 

 ents, but not blood-related, very rarely beget deaf and dumb chil- 

 dren. 7. The number of deaf and dumb born increases formidably in 

 places where natural obstacles stand in the way of cross-marriages. 

 Thus we have the proportion of the deaf and dumb, which in France 

 in general is six upon ten thousand inhabitants ; in Corsica, fourteen 

 on ten thousand ; in the High Alps, twenty-three on ten thousand ; in 

 Iceland, eleven ; in the Canton of Berne, twenty-eight. 8. The num- 

 ber of the deaf and dumb in Europe may be reckoned at about 

 250,000. 



WHY THE STOMACH DOES NOT DIGEST ITSELF. 



At a late meeting of the Royal Society, England, Dr. Pavy, in a com- 

 munication discussing the " Immunity enjoyed by the stomach from 

 being digested by its own secretion during life," after stating that the 

 " living principle " suggested by John Hunter, as the protecting agency, 

 did not stand the test of experiment, for it had been shown that the 

 tissues of living animals might be dissolved by the stomach secretion, 

 said that the prevailing notion of the mucous lining of the organ 

 serving as its source of protection by its susceptibility of constant renew- 

 al during life was equally untenable ; for he had found by experiment 

 that a patch of entire mucous membrane might be removed, and _food 

 would afterwards be digested in the stomach without the stomach itself 

 presenting the slightest sign of attack. The view propounded by Dr. 



