246 MARRIAGE AND DISEASE. 



better. It is indeed a small percentage of the children 

 of the immature that ever become robust, useful, self- 

 supporting citizens. 



Again, can any one who looks beyond the immediate 

 present seriously argue that morality can possibly be 

 the gainer from such marriages as those under re- 

 view ? Who will venture to say that the immorality 

 which might possibly be indulged in by the individual 

 during his minority because of his unmarried state can 

 approach that which must be the natural outcome of 

 the presence in society of his half-dozen ill-developed, 

 half-educated, half-starved children ? Where do im- 

 morality and vice assume their most hideous forms ? 

 Is it not in the dens where the wretched children of 

 these immature, improvident, and impoverished parents 

 are huddled together in the slums of our great centres 

 of population ? But now I am encroaching upon the 

 domain of the sociologist, a thing I promised not to 

 do, and an aspect of the question with which I am not 

 competent to deal. Let us at once, then, and briefly, 

 consider the matter from the standpoint of the physio- 

 logist, and learn how these early marriages affect the 

 standard of health and the vitality of the community. 



It is impossible that individuals, male or female, 

 who have not themselves reached maturity, can beget 

 or bring forth a fully developed, healthy offspring. 

 The child has only that quantum of vitality which has 

 been conferred upon it by its parents, and should they 

 be deficient in vital power, of necessity so also must 

 be the child. The deficiency of vital energy in the 



