298 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



criminal arrives at the bottom of the drop, yet the second or so 

 ■\vliich lie takes to fall is, doul)tless, one of extreme mental an- 

 guish, to avoid which the author gives a rule for producing instan- 

 taneous death l)y the Ameriean method. This consists in suddcaily 

 lU'ling the crimiiial inlo the air by means of a great wi'ight at- 

 tached to the other end of tlie rope fastened round his nc^ck ; tlie 

 rope passes over a pulley i)laced vertically over tiie patient, and 

 at a triven sijjnal the weiirht falls through a vegulat(!d height, 

 lifting him suddenly into the air. By properly proportioning the 

 ■\veigiit anil tlie distance througli wliich it is allowed to fall, the 

 •chuck' jiroduces instant death." 



CONSANGUINEOUS MARRIAGES. 



M. Rambosson communicated to the French Academy, in 186G, 

 a ))aper on this subject : — 



There are two very different opinions on this subject. One 

 set of observations goes to show that the offspring of such mar- 

 riages are, by that fact alone, condemned to an almost inevital^le 

 defreneracv, and that the union of individuals of the same blood 

 may lead to the extinction of families. According to another 

 set, such maniages entail no deterioration at all on the offspring ; 

 on the contrary, they preserve and ameliorate races. Hence 

 some have deduced the fact that consanguinity in itself is per- 

 fectly innocuous, and can only help to perpetuate heredity. Sup- 

 posing the two parents to be perfectly sound, their union will 

 have no more tendency to produce ^lisease in the offspring than if 

 they were perfect strangers in blood to each other. Others again 

 assert that in iiKin, as in other animals, the intermarriage of blood 

 relations increases the heredity both of good and bad qualities to 

 the highest point possible ; so that if any weakness exi^s in a 

 family, the intermarriage of its members will multiply that weak- 

 ness in an alarming degree. A third party observe that particular 

 tendencies, wlun once developed, by diet, or by any other cause, 

 in individuals, may be multiplied and peiijctuated in a family, and 

 then in a race by consanguineous marriages. So that a tendency 

 in individuals becomes thus a realized fact in their offspring. 

 The author proceeded to call attention to some facts which he 

 thought had been lost sight of bj- these partisans. Man, he ob- 

 served, was infested with moi'e maladies than all other animals 

 put together ; so that even the very healthiest caiTy along with 

 them always the seeds of some disease, or the tendency to some 

 affection. When a man has recovered from any malady, he is 

 likelj' to transmit it to his posterity. Now a malady is often the 

 consequence of those daily conditions which give individuals who 

 live together a sort of family air ; so that it would be very diffi- 

 cult to find the members of any one family, or even very near 

 relations, who are not liable to have tendencies to common dis- 

 ordei-s. Those, therefore, who have argued in favor of consan- 

 guineous alliances from the example of animals, have oanitted 

 important elements in the calculation. The instinct of animals is 

 also a surer guide in matters of diet, and more readily followed, 



