Consanguineous Marriages in the American Population

dice, the most important facts in regard to consanguineous marriages, their effects

ionship in the parents upon the health and condition of the offspring; but also the effect, if any, which such marriages have upon the birth-rate, upon the propo

me generalizations of scientific value. The sources of these data are largely American. Little attempt is made to study European material, or to discuss phases of the problem which are only of local concern. Some topics, therefore, which have frequently been treated

arriages are vaguely given as consanguineous, few are more distant than second cousins, for in the United States especially, distant relationships are rarely traced except by genealogists. In designatin

of the name. Yet men of high scientific standing have repeatedly made most dogmatic assertions in regard to the results of such unions, and have apparently assumed that no proof was necessary. For example, Sir Henry Sumner Maine "cannot see

and frequent appeals are made to Scripture, wrongly assuming

spensation is still necessary before a Catholic can marry his first cousin. However, such dispensations have always been easy to obtain, especially by

as so thoroughly impressed upon the people that they were very prone to look askance at such unions, and if they were followed by any defective progeny, the fact would be

rry, except the fatal consequences to society; for were it generally practised, men would become a race of pigmies. It iz no crime for brothers' and sisters' children to intermarry, and this iz often practised; but such near blood connections often pro

tatistics have a strong, if unintentional, bias which seriously affects their value. In France one of the earliest discussions was by M. Boudin,[7] who evidently obtained the Bemiss report (attributing it to Dr. O.W. Morris, who had quoted freely from Bemiss),[8] and enlarged greatly upon its fallacies. He also collected statistics of the deaf-mutes in Paris, and, by an amazing manipulation of figures, "demonstrated" that consanguinity of th

een the statistical study by George H. Darwin,[10] and the classic "Marriage of Near Kin" by Alfred H. Huth, a book of 475 pages, including a very complete bibliography to the date of the second edi

tributions. German writers have usually preferred more general subjects, but many of th

sixteen states the prohibition is extended to include first cousins. In New Hampshire such marriages are void and the children are illegitimate. Other states in which first-cousin marriage is forbidden are Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Kansas, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Nevada, Washington, Oregon, Missouri, Arkansas, and Louisiana. Since both Oklahoma and Indian Territory had similar laws, the present State of Oklahoma should probably be added to this list. In all of these states marriages within the prohibite

directly put to the applicants for a marriage license. The applicants are required to answer the usual questions in regard to age, parentage, residence, etc., and are then required to swear that their previous statements have been correct and that neither of them is "epileptic, imbecile or insane," that they are "not nearer of kin than second cousins, and not at the time under the influence of any intoxicating liquor or n

lf-century, and a large number of these are very carefully and scientifically prepared. The material gathered from such sources is very accurate in regard to the number of births, youthful deathrate etc., but mental or physical defects are rarely mentioned. The greatest objection to the utili

member will be those in which something unusual has occurred. Herein lay the fallacy in the conclusions of Dr. Bemiss. I have endeavored to overcome this bias by

espondence, is 723, a number too small in itself to establish any definite conclusions; but by using this material in connection with other related data, I

ly a genetic aggregation. Consanguineous marriages have been very frequent, until now nearly all are more or less interrelated. Out of a hundred or more families of which I obtained some record, at least five marriages were between first cousins. All of these were fertile, and all the children were living and apparently healthy. Since over thirty per cent of the inhabitants bear one surname (Evans), and those bearing the first four surnames in point of frequency (Evans, Brad-shaw, Marsh, and T

become degenerate. Until the antecedents of a community are known it is of course impossible to estimate the effect of consanguinity. The exceptionally high percentage of deaf-mutism on Martha's Vineyard may to some extent be due to a high percentage of