CONSANGUINEOUS MARRIAGES 247 



garded as the inevitable consequence of Mendel's law of inheri- 

 tance. Where a defect is inherited by two parents from a common 

 ancestor their union is naturally followed by the production of 

 the defect in question. It may be seriously doubted if inbreeding 

 does more than this or is ever strictly speaking the cause of defect 

 of any kind ; it simply makes manifest defects that are already in 

 the germ plasm. 



It must not be forgotten that if inbreeding sometimes brings 

 out undesirable qualities it may also conserve good ones. A 

 conspicuous example of a consanguineous marriage which was 

 productive of most fortunate results is afforded by the marriage 

 of Charles Darwin with his first cousin, Emma Wedgewood. The 

 Wedgewoods, like the Darwins, belonged to a noteworthy family. 

 Josiah Wedgewood the founder of the works that make the well- 

 known Wedgewood pottery was a F. R. S. as was also the cele- 

 brated Erasmus Darwin. All of Darwin's sons became celebrated 

 for their intellectual achievements and are noteworthy for being 

 unusually able and normal types of men. 



A good deal of close intermarrying has occurred in the Walcotts, 

 Edwards, and other old New England families who have produced 

 many of our most able men. Consanguineous marriages have 

 probably been a means of conserving superior ability in some of 

 the royal families of Europe, although in others they have served 

 to bring out a neuropathic inheritance.^ 



The effect of crosses between different races and peoples has 

 been the subject of no end of discussion. Naturalists, historians, 

 anthropologists, travelers, missionaries, and casual observers of 

 aU descriptions have contributed to swell the volume of literature 

 which has been accumulating on this subject since the days of the 

 author of Leviticus. Even the most competent observers have 

 come to opposed conclusions, and it is not rare to find the same 

 mongrel race spoken of by different writers in quite contradictory 

 terms. No one can read much of the literature on race crossing 



1 That cousin marriages in England are no more harmful than ordinary mar- 

 riages is indicated by the statistical investigations of George Darwin (Jour. Roy. 

 Stat. Soc. 38, 153-182, 1875.) 



