286 



FOOT-NOTES TO EVOLUTION. 



cretin parents. It is strange that self-interest does not 

 lead the natives of Aosta to place their cretins under 

 such restrictions as would prevent their illicit inter- 

 course; and it is still more surprising to find the Catho- 

 lic Church actually legalizing their marriage. There is 



Fig. 28. — A cretin of Aosta. (After Whymper.) 



something horribly grotesque in the idea of solemnizing 

 the union of a brace of idiots, and, since it is well known 

 that the disease is hereditary and develops in successive 

 generations, the fact that such marriages are sanctioned 



