PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS. 721 
man. As I have said, for my part, I doubt if inter- 
marriage is as detrimental as it is generally considered 
to be, though if is a question of some importance, as 
much happiness may be pent up in its answer. In a 
measure, it is a natural thing that cousins should marry, 
considering the proximity with which their relatives are 
often brought up. Their probable similarity of tastes, 
and the adjustment of property. render such marriages 
often not undesirable where there is no nervous fault to 
stand in the way. I know that a strong prejudice still 
exists against such unions; but I am certain that harm 
seldom results, and that deformities are just as rare 
amongst them as they are in distant marriages. 
Syplulis is undoubtedly hereditary. This is as clear a 
point as any in Pathology. It can even descend to the 
third generation; but I fancy as a transmissible poison 
in this respect it stands alone. This is very remarkable. 
_ It is said that leprosy also descends from parent to child. 
In the first place we know very little about this disease 
itself, and almost nothing about its transmissibleness. 
This is just one of those loose statements which we so 
frequently encounter in medicine. A Brown-Sequard or 
a Brodie speaks, or in the course of some lecture makes, an 
ill-digested statement, and at once it is regarded as an 
indisputable truth. Take, for instance, the former's 
remarks on organic fluids, and the laitter’s allusious to 
perchloride of mercury and sarsaparilla. A suggestion 
from men like these often becomes a dogma, and so with 
leprosy. I believe it is very doubtful, as far as is known, 
whether this disease is at all hereditary, and so with gout. 
Tf there was one thing, some thirty years ago, of which 
we were perfectly certain, it was the hereditariness of 
this disease. Our own views in this respect have certainly 
very much changed, and so have the manners and habits 
of that circle of society which used to be so affected with 
gout. In these days we meet with the disease principally 
in its latent forms, as underlying some other affections, 
such as urethritis, articular disturbances, and irritations of 
the mucous membrane. Those frank explosions which 
used to be so frequent among the leisured classes, and for 
which all sorts of quack remedies were sold, are much less 
often met with nowadays. We do not therefore infer that 
the disease is in any way extinct; but it certainly is not 
the scourge it used to be amongst the wealthy. 
Rheumatism is another complaint which bore the same 
evil character. Now, I question if anybody assigng to it a 
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