BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 789 
union was governed throughout nature in the animal and 
vegetable kingdom, it might be fairly supposed to settle the 
question against that hypothesis. The Mosaic law gave 
strong though indirect inducement for marriages between 
blood relations, and that such marriages did prevail of old 
among the Jews was easily proved by passages in their his¬ 
tory. It had been objected that the same kind of careful 
selection employed by the successful breeders of animals was 
not, and could not be, so used in the case of human beings, 
and hence the difference of the result which followed in the 
two cases. No doubt there was much weight in that objec¬ 
tion, but it obviously proceeded on the hypothesis that the 
ordinary laws of inheritance governed close-breeding animals 
equally with others. Moreover, it was obvious that selection was 
just as much and just as little applicable to consanguineous 
marriages among mankind as to any marriages. Having- 
referred to the case of a Highland clan in Scotland which had 
bred in and in for many generations without any deteriora¬ 
tion in the race, and other instances of a similar kind, he 
arrived at the following conclusions :—1. That statistical evi¬ 
dence from observations of mankind was especially inappli¬ 
cable to cases of this kind ; 2. That the evidence in favour of 
the theory that close breeding was against the law of nature 
was in the highest degree unsatisfactory; 3. That there is 
positive evidence from the results of recorded observation 
upon animals that no such laws affect them, i.e. that where 
other causes of degeneracy are absent, any degree of close 
breeding may exist without producing ill effects; and 4. 
That, unless we are prepared to believe in two distinct physio¬ 
logies, the same must be true of the human race. 
The Rev . II. B. Tristram, F.T.S., said that in one of the 
Bermudas there w 7 ere only two families, and though inter¬ 
marriage prevailed for generations, the people had not dege¬ 
nerated, and lived to great ages. 
Dr. Paget thought that the objection to a union between 
cousins was well founded. Mr. Child had mentioned a flock 
of sheep bred in and in which were equal to the best South- 
downs, but he seemed to forget that they were all a selected 
breed, and that if one lamb was not up to the standard it 
was killed or removed from the rest of the sheep. (Hear, 
hear.) Men and women were not like selected sheep. Every¬ 
one had some peculiarity, some weak point—it might be a 
tendency to gout or chest complaints, or some other defect of 
body or mind. A doctor could always point out some pecu¬ 
liarity or weakness in every family he attended. Suppose 
two cousins who had such a defect of constitution married. 
