PROCEEDINGS OF THE SECTIONS. 203 
on the island; and Captain Bouverie Clark R.N., who then visited the 
lace and specially examined the children at my request, reported 
that there was no case of idiocy, imbecility, or weakness of intel- 
lect, or deformity among them 
n ordinary life, howev er, and in ordinary conditions, it is 
said, “consanguinity res seromey to the highest power.” It is 
the cases of septa union, all the parents are described as more 
or less weak-minde the very fact of their seeking such unions, 
in the conditions of ‘life as they now are, is in itself evidence of 
scant intellectual mre omer and blunted moral feelin 
If I had been able to devote the necessary time to the subject, 
I should have been glad to sion the interesting question of the 
connection between bodily deformity and intellectual defect. 
digits to the most hideous malformations. I cannot now, however, 
enter o n this. In 571 cases of idiocy collected by Dr. Howe, 
$4er hone were blind and had deformed eyes, twelve were deaf, 
twenty-three had deformity of mouth and nose, fifty-four deformed 
hands and feet, and ninety-six were paralyzed in some parts ; and 
every asylum for the imbecile and idiotic affords re gee 
instances of this kind, which add not a little to the painful as 
of a inmates. 
facts I have placed ‘ekiens you are— 
Ist.. That the marriage of persons who are or have been insane, 
pronounced form, should—except under special cireumstances— 
be discouraged, as likely, in addition to the dangers of direct 
peredity, and the production of progeny apt to develop insanity, 
childre 
ce idiotic or imbecile n. 
ee That the ate eem 4 of persons from neurotic or insane 
families, and the marriage of near kin, especially when there is 
mental peculiarity of any kind, should be discountenanced in every 
se way, 98 almost certain to result in insane or idiotic 
3. That we, as médical men, have a duty to perform in this 
tte ‘TYP pointing out tke evils likely to ves fom such unions 
