TRANSMISSION OF DISORDERED STATES OF SYSTEM. 919 



lated by blood ; and this relationship was suspected to have existed in several 

 other cases, in which positive information could not be obtained. On ex- 

 amining into the history of the 17 fkmilies to which these individuals 

 belonged, it was found that they had consisted, in all, of 95 children ; that 

 of these no fewer than 44 were idiotic, 12 others were scrofulous and puny, 

 1 was deaf, and 1 was a dwarf. In some of these families, all the child ren 

 were either idiotic, or very scrofulous and puny ; in one family of 8 chil- 

 dren, 5 were idiotic. 1 But it does not seem requisite for the production of 

 very imperfect offspring from the intermarriage of near relations, that any 

 decided " taint " should exist in the parents ; for the Author's own observa- 

 tions and inquiries lead him to conclude that the same danger results when 

 there is any strong personal or mental " idiosyncrasy," such as is often seen 

 to run through the members (both male and female) of a particular family, 

 causing them to be at once recognized as belonging to it, by those who have 

 been familiar with other members. 2 This liability probably does not exist 

 to nearly the same degree, where the parents, although nearly related, differ 

 widely in physical and in psychical characters, through the predominance of 

 elements which have been introduced by their non-related parents ; as, for 

 example, when a man strongly resembles his father rather than his mother, 

 marries the daughter of his mother's brother, who, on her part, resembles 

 her own mother rather than the father. But the case previously cited ( 767) 

 gives warning that even here the " family idiosyncrasy" may exist in a pow- 

 erful degree, though in a latent form, and may seriously affect the constitu- 

 tion of the offspring. It is quite as common to meet with Atavism in the 

 transmission of hereditary disease, as in the reproduction of " family like- 



ness." 



1 See Dr. Howe's Report, p. 90. An Abstract of this Report is given in the Amer. 

 Journ. of Med. Sci , April, 1849. The following works may also be referred to as 

 containing information upon the important subject of the effects upon the offspring 

 of marriages of consanguinity : M. Boudin in the Annales d'Hygiene, vol. xviii, pp. 

 6-82, who observes that the deaf mutes of consanguineous origin are from twelve to 

 fifteen times as numerous as they would be if the infirmity were equally distributed 

 among the offspring of consanguineous and other marriages ; Dr. Bemiss in the Jour- 

 nal of Psychological Medicine for 18-">7, p. 368. who supplies facts and argumonts 

 against such marriages; Dr. Mitchell in the Edinb. Med. Journ. for 1862, p. 872, 

 who considers idiocy to be an especially frequent consequence of the marriage of 

 blood relations, and agrees with M. Boudin in regard to the frequency of deaf 

 mutism in the offspring; M. Cadiot in the Comptes Rendus, vol. ii, 1863, p. 978; 

 M. Angelon in idem, vol. i, 1864, p. 166; and Dr. E. Dally in the Anthropologi- 

 cal Review for May, 1864. Amongst the Editor's own immediate relations there 

 have been five marriages between first cousins, from whit-h have proceeded thirty- 

 three children; of these eight have died, one from teething, two from croup, and 

 one from hooping-cough (all injudiciously fed), one from accident, one from cyanosis, 

 and two from well-marked scrofulous disease; the last two occurred in the same 

 family, and were the only offspring of an extremely obt-se father and a highly scrofu- 

 lous mother. The surviving children are of unusually healthy and fine growth. See 

 also a Leader in Lancet, 1870. vol. ii, p. 898. The Editor, therefore, from these and 

 other observations, fully accords with the observations of Dr. G. W. Childs in the 

 Medico Chir. Review for 1862, vol. i, p. 461, who, in criticizing Dr. Bemiss's Essay, 

 remarks that the marriages of blood relations have no tendency, per se, to produce 

 degeneration of race, though they have a tendency to strengthen and develop in the 

 offspring individual peculiarities of the parents, both mental and physical, whether 

 morbid or otherwise. 



2 A most lamentable instance of this kind, which happened some years ago in a 

 family well known to the Author, was the occasion of his first directing his attention 

 specially to this point. Two first cousins, possessing a strong " family idiosyncrasy," 

 but no definite " taint," having married, four children were born, each of which was 

 distinguished by some marked defect of organization or perversion of function, one 

 being deaf and dumb, another scrofulous, a third idiotic, and a fourth epileptic. 



