132 THE MENDEL JOURNAL 



drunkenness and of his stupidity in the choice of his 

 partner ? Was he physically fit because he was 

 capable of living until seventy years of age, in spite 

 of his vicious habits of life ? Should we let him marry 

 because of his physical robustness, and decree his 

 celibacy because of his moral delinquencies ? These 

 are tough questions for a board of medical marriage 

 assessors, calculated truly to shake their self-com- 

 placency ! And when we further learn that this man 

 was " an employer of labour in an industrial town, 

 and received posthumous eulogies from the local 

 Press," we shall find it hard to say whether he or his 

 degenerate offspring shall or shall not be forbidden to 

 marry. And thus in imagination, postulating that 

 we are living in a degenerate and helotised England, 

 which tamely tolerates a " Marriage Board," and 

 that we are the Chairman of that Board, and have a 

 casting vote, we decide to regard this man as not 

 degenerate. We simply mark him with a query. 



The next case that comes before us for considera- 

 tion is No. 19 of the C. Generation. She desires to 

 marry the man shown to the left of her on the pedi- 

 gree. We find that he, too, like the man whom we 

 have just discussed, is drunken and im.moral. Is he 

 to be " blacked in " or left blank on the official chart ? 

 He certainly is not a nice person. But we have no 

 information of his family. No. 8 of the B. Genera- 

 tion, who was drunk and immoral, we decided to leave 

 alone. Can we consistently condemn this man of 

 the C. Generation on account of the same vices ? And 

 if we do, and plead that we left No. 8 B. alone because 



