172 MARRIAGE AND DISEASE. 



about an impoverished, devitalised condition of the 

 system, which is reproduced in the offspring as idiocy, 

 scrofula, epilepsy, deaf-mutism, or some such blight. 



Seeing, then, that this terrible affliction is rarely, 

 as some would have us believe, an inexplicable freak 

 of Nature, but in most cases has its origin in some 

 parental character more or less degenerate, it behoves 

 us to consider seriously the advisability of the marriage 

 of those so afflicted, and of their kindred. 



Firstly, it should be impressed upon all, and espe- 

 cially upon a certain class of philanthropist, that the 

 congenital deaf should not be induced, or even per- 

 mitted, to intermarry. The vis medicatrix naturae 

 should here, as elsewhere, be given a chance of im- 

 proving the family stock, and this cannot be where 

 both parents are tainted. 



In the next place, it is doubtful whether deaf-mutes 

 should marry at all. However, if a deaf-mute can in- 

 duce some normal person of the opposite sex to take 

 him for better for worse and such a union should 

 have its advantages we could hardly expect him to 

 say "No" in the interests of those still unborn. But 

 whether any person of reasonably sound development 

 could be induced to enter into such a union is ex- 

 tremely problematical, and in this fact lies the danger. 

 If the perfectly sound could be mated with the deaf- 

 mute, there can be little doubt that in many cases 

 the degenerate character would be lost by the rever- 

 sion of the children to the normal type. But in few 

 instances will the sound and healthy be fascinated by 



