JERSEY CATTLE BREEDING. 377 



m-AND-m BREEDING. 



HEATH. OF NEW YORK. 



Permit me to make a few off-hand statements on the subject of in-and-in breed- 

 ing. 



I have not the time at my disposal from my many carfs, obligations and em- 

 ployments, to do the subject that justice that your learned association ought to ex- 

 pect from an outsider. Could I be present at your grave deliberations to defend 

 ray random remarks, I should feel the satisfaction of a reply to criticisms. But as 

 you kindly suggest that my statements will find their way into the Jersey Bulletin, 

 I feel a degree of assurance that I shall be permitted to reply for myself, should it 

 be necessary. And then, as I know that you can, from personal experience as an 

 editor and an essayist, appreciate all these circumstances fully, I the more readily 

 consent to grant your request. 



I shall, then, be brief, lest I weary your association. 



I am a cosmopolitan, and therefore have less to bias my judgment than those 

 of strictly sectarian views. I say this because I desire to bring forward a living, a 

 potential, and a long-existing argument against in-and-in breeding. And before I 

 refer to, or indicate my example or illustration, I wish to give some degree of re- 

 spect, admiration and credit for the subject I desire to use as my first, foremost and 

 strongest argument against in-and-in breeding, as it holds equally good in the 

 human, as in the comparative animal subjects. 



While I regard the Israelitish people as the grandest association of human be- 

 ings unde^ the providence of God Almighty, for the advancement of mankind in 

 prosperity, civilization, and successful human advancement, yet I can not disguise 

 the fact tly^ the inter and in-and-in marriage of the Jews has entailed upon man- 

 kind the most monstrous physical and moral evils the world has ever seen. De- 

 creptitude, disease, suflering and premature death have all followed in the conse- 

 quent train of human evils. 



You will see that I have laid the foundation of my argument in history and in 

 fact. I need not, therefore, state that it is universally admitted that among the 

 Jews there is a greater degree of deformity, physical infirmity, and mental pros- 

 tration than among any other people of the world, when their favored circum- 

 stances are fairly taken into account. 



Then, I say, that similar influences operating upon animals, result in similar 

 physical defects and degenerating results. 



One or two, or even several, incestuous cohabitations of animals may not strike 

 one as injurious, when we are blinded by a degree of refinement and beauty in the 

 offspring. But when we study tlie stamina, strength and constitution of the pro- 

 geny in a fair, full and unbiased manner we shall find a surprising degree of de- 

 generation. 



