Chap. XVII. EVIL FEOM INTERBREEDING. 123 



that with widely different races, in the most distant quarters of 

 the world, marriages between relations — even between distant 

 relations — have been strictly prohibited. A few exceptional 

 cases can be specified, especially with royal families ; and these 

 have been enlarged on in a learned article 23 by Mr. W. Adam, 

 and formerly in 1828 by Hofacker. Mr. Tylor is inclined to 

 believe that the almost universal prohibition of closely-related 

 marriages has arisen from their evil effects having been observed, 

 and he ingeniously explains some apparent anomalies in the 

 prohibition not extending equally to the relations on both the 

 male and female side. He admits, however, that other causes, 

 such as the extension of friendly alliances, may have come into 

 play. Mr. W. Adam, on the other hand, concludes that related 

 marriages are prohibited and viewed with repugnance from the 

 confusion which would thus arise in the descent of property, and 

 from other still more recondite reasons; but I cannot accept 

 this view, seeing that the savages of Australia and South 

 America, 2 * who have no property to bequeath or fine moral 

 feelings to confuse, hold the crime of incest in abhorrence. 



It would be interesting to know, if it could be ascertained, as 

 throwing light on this question with respect to man, what occurs 

 with the higher anthropomorphous apes — whether the young 

 males and females soon wander away from their parents, or 

 whether the old males become jealous of their sons and expel 

 them, or whether any inherited instinctive feeling, from being- 

 beneficial, has been generated, leading the young males and 

 females of the same family to prefer pairing with distinct 

 families, and to dislike pairing with each other. A considerable 

 body of evidence has already been advanced, showing that the 

 offspring from parents which are not related are more vigorous 

 and fertile than those from parents which are closely related ; 

 hence any slight feeling, arising from the sexual excitement of 

 novelty or other cause, which led to the former rather than to 

 the latter unions, would be augmented through natural selec- 

 tion, and thus might become instinctive ; for those individuals 

 which had an innate preference of this kind would increase in 

 number. It seems more probable, that degraded savages should 



23 On Consanguinity in Marriage, in 24 Sir G. Grey's ' Journal of Expe- 



the 'Fortnightly Review,' 1865, p. 710; ditions into Australia,' vol. ii. p. 243 ; 



Hofacker, ' Ueber die Eigenschaften,' and Dobrizhoffer, ' On the Abipones of 



& c - South America.' 



