THE FOKMATION OF A DEAF VAIMFTV OF THE HUMAN KACE. 195 



I would also suggest that, wberever possible, tlie names of the husbands aud wives of the pupils 

 should be given, and the faet reeorded as to whether they belong to families containing more than 

 one deaf-mute or not. This is important even iu the case of marriage with a hearing person, for 

 in most of the cases of such marriages that have come uuder my personal observatiou the heariug 

 partner belonged to a family containing deaf-nnites. 



However imperfect may be the records of the marriages of the deaf it is abundantly evident, 

 (1) that there is a fendeiicy amniu/ (leaf miite.s to select deaf-mutes as their partners in marriage ; (2) 

 that this tendeney has been continuously exhiljited during the past forty or fifty years, and (3) that there- 

 fore there is every probability that the selection of the deaf by the deaf in marriage will continue in the 

 fiiture. 



It is evident, then, that we have here to consider, not an ephemeral phenomenon, but a case of 

 continuous selection. For instance, should it appear that there are in ihis country any considerable 

 number of deaf-mutes who are themselves the offspring of deaf-mutes the indications are that a 

 large proportion of these persons will marry, and that of those who marry, the majority will marry 

 deaf-mutes. Thus, there is every indication that iu the case of the deaf and dumb the work of 

 selection will go on from generation to generation. 



