240 MARRIAGE AND DISEASE. 



Those of the rheumatic diathesis are very prone 

 to internal inflammations as of the sac which holds 

 the heart, the membranes of the brain, the pleuraB, 

 and later in life to disease of the kidneys, and also 

 of the bones, ligaments, and joints, which frequently 

 terminates in complete crippling and great deformity. 

 Disease of the great blood-vessels is also very com- 

 mon, and not a few fatal cases of aneurysm and 

 other like diseases have their origin in the rheumatic 

 state. 



In the vast majority of cases rheumatism makes 

 its first appearance between fifteen and thirty years 

 of age, but it may occur in early life, and although 

 it is comparatively rare before five, it occasionally 

 occurs, leaving heart disease behind, during the second, 

 or even the first, year of life. 



As to marriage, it is clear that, other things being 

 equal, the person having the rheumatic diathesis is 

 not as fit and proper a candidate for matrimony as 

 the person who is free from this taint of unfit- 

 ness. We have seen how it may be transmuted, in 

 transmission to the children, to chorea, neuralgia, 

 paralysis, heart disease, insanity, or other of the 

 symptoms of family decay. It is therefore advisable 

 that those who wish to live in posterity should avoid, 

 so far as possible, intermarriage with those who 

 themselves, or whose immediate relatives, have this 

 diathesis well marked. And while this duty devolves 

 upon the healthy, who desire their children to escape 

 avoidable suffering, as far as is possible, it comes 



