EARLY MARRIAGES. 247 



parent or parents may arise from various causes. It 

 may have been lost from exhausting disease, from 

 vicious excesses, from approaching senility, or it may 

 never have been had to lose, as is the case in the 

 immature ; but whether never possessed, or from what- 

 ever cause lost, its absence in the parent is equally 

 serious to the child. That which the parent has not, 

 he cannot entail upon his children. The children of 

 the immature lad, the enfeebled invalid, and the 

 worn-out roue are of necessity born into the same low 

 grade of vital poverty. 



From very early times it has been noted, of man 

 and animals alike, that the young begotten or brought 

 forth by the immature has been wanting to a greater 

 or less extent in strength, stamina, and courage in 

 general development, in fact. No breeder of stock 

 would permit his mares, heifers, or ewes, however 

 healthy, to bring forth young before they had arrived 

 at maturity, nor would he permit an immature male 

 to impregnate the females of his herds or flocks. 

 When such does occur, the offspring is invariably 

 small, weedy, and not worth the trouble its bringing 

 up entails. " The young of animals not yet fully 

 developed are small and stunted, incapable of perfec- 

 tion : it is observed in foals, lambs, goats, calves, &c., 

 born of very young parents ; they remain weak, lym- 

 phatic, and functionally inert." * Here is a case in 

 point which recently came under my own observation. 

 A young sow was impregnated by a mature boar, and 

 * " A Physician's Problems," by Charles Elam, M.D. 



