$14 DADD 8 VETERINARY MEDICINE AND SURGERY. 
which exists between the parties, but is the result of their defeo 
tive constitutions. Many of the cousin-marriages are entered inte 
without the least regard to the rational theory cf selection and 
rejection. The question is one of interest, not of utility. These 
blood connections are consummated merely to retain property in 
families, and to satisfy the caprices of doting parents, superannu- 
ated uncles, and disappointed maiden aunts; and thus many an 
idiotic or emaciated sprig of aristocracy unites his destinies with s 
fashionable cousin the very counterpart of himself, both inherit 
ing family defects of precisely similar character. Should they be 
blessed (cursed, rather) with offspring, may we not expect a min- 
iature of the originals? “Without due attention to avoiding dis- 
ease, it will increase in the progeny.” 
Among the human species, therefore, where the objects are of 
such immense importance to present and future generations, the 
principles of selection and rejection are entirely overlooked. We 
pay more attention to the principles of breeding in cattle than we 
do to those applicable also to their lord and master. Hence the 
faults and defects alluded to are not the result of close affinities, 
but result from our indifference or ignorance of the laws of life. 
OpJECTIONS TO IN-AND-IN BRFEDING ANSWERED. 
The two preceding paragraphs are bricf answers to the objec 
tions against the sexual congress of blood-relations; yet, as other 
evidence than my own, and of a more general character, may be 
demanded by the reader, I Lave thought it best to introduce other 
testimony. The following quotations are from the pen of P. 8. 
Homerickson, of Ohio, published as a “ Prize Essay : ” 
“Many object to what has been termed in-and-in breeding 
Indecd, with most of those who do go, theiz objections assume 
the form of a very strong prejudice. This is attributable to a 
certain confusion in their minds, by which reasons, wherein there 
is no proper connection, are made, with the aid of imagination, te 
assume a form of mutual dependence and coherence in support of 
their theory. In the human family, marriages within the Levitical 
degree, or, as they are also called, incestuous marriages, are for- 
bidden. But the prohibition rests exclusively upon woral, and 
not at all upon natural or physical reasons; yet the direct phys 
ical calamities are imagined to pursue the infringement cf that nw 
