The intermarriage of relatives and its consequences.

  • C. J. M.
Date:
[1890?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The intermarriage of relatives and its consequences. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    he accepted as “ substantially correct.’’ “ In eight cases no evil results were observed. In eight cases sterility followed. The twenty-nine cases which remain gave eight idiots, five imbeciles, eleven insane, four paralytics, two deaf mutes, three blind, two with defective vision, three deformed (spinal curvature, &c.), six lame, one rachitic, twenty-two phthisical, scrofulous, or manifestly of weak constitution.” In pursuance of his inquiry Dr. Mitchell investigated the subsequent history of some of those consanguineous mar- riages, and gives the dreadful results as follow:— “ Case T. A married B, his full cousin, and had five children. No. 1. Sound in mind and body; twice married to wives not related to him; had nine children, of whom one died in early infancy, one was eccentric, one imbecile, and three became insane. No. 2. Imbecile. No. 3. Dead. No. 4. Imbecile. No. 5. Became insane. “ Case II0. A B married X Y, his full cousin, and had issue nine children. No. 1. Of defective vision, and very scrofulous; sterile. No. 2. Of small stature, defective articulation, cleft palate. No. 3. Spinal curvature. No. 4, Idiot. No. 5. Defective vision ; sterile. No. 6. Sound in mind and body; sterile. No. 7. Imbecile. No. 8. Of sound mind; dwarfish. No. 9. Idiot and dwarf. “ Case IIT. E B married X Y, his full cousin, and had issue five children. No. 1. Eccentric. No. 2. Of sound mind ; rachitic. No. 3. Of sound mind; married a gentleman not related to her, , and had two children—one idiotic; the condition of the other not known. No. 4. Imbecile, ineducable, dwarfish. No. 5. Idiot;; dwarf. “ Case IV'\ M married F, his cousin, and had issue five children, J of whom one was sane, one was paralytic, one was lame, and two were idiotic. “ Case V°. M married F, his cousin, and had issue ten children, of whom two were sane and arrived at maturity, one was an idiot, i one an imbecile, one deaf and dumb, and five died in early infancy. “ Case VI0. A married B, his cousin, and had issue several j children. No. 1, An idiot boy. No. 2. A sound girl,who married ; a man not related to her, and had two children, one of whom was an idiot boy, the other a boy sane and sound, but who became- the father of an idiot child, &o., &c. The parents of the last- mentioned child were not blood-related, nor even her grand- parents, but her great grand-parents were cousins, and in their children, grand-children, and great grand-children idiocy had appeared, though it had never done so in any of the collateral, branches of the family Deaf-mutism, blindness, deformity, club-foot, hare-lip, &c.,