This is an OCR edition without illustrations or index. It may have numerous typos or missing text. However, purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original rare book from GeneralBooksClub.com. You can also preview excerpts from the book there. Purchasers are also entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Original Published by: D. Appleton and Company in 1889 in 553 pages; Subjects: Public health; Health & Fitness / General; Medical / Diseases; Medical / Health Care Delivery; Medical / Pathology; Medical / Preventive Medicine; Medical / Public Health;

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1889. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XXII. INTERMARRIAGE OF DISEASE. The induced diseases of modern life cannot justly be considered without a brief, —and it shall be a brief, —reference to one of the most solemn of their predisposing causes. I mean the intermarriage of disease by the union of persons who are strongly tainted with fatal maladies which must, in the ordinary course of events, appear in their offspring. It is the common impression that injuries of this class are only effected through marriages of consanguinity. Hence marriage between cousins is objected to; but in plain truth the question of consanguinity is secondary. There is no doubt that if cousins, each possessing an original family taint, marry, the result may be doubly disastrous to the offspring. This, however, is not on account of the consanguinity, but .because both persons are similarly infected with the taint . I mean by this, that if they had not been related, and had been similarly infected, the results to their offspring would be the same. We ought, therefore, to take a much wider view of the subject than that which is bounded by consanguinity. The worst intermarriages of disease are those in which both parents are the inheritors of the same disease, as where both are disposed to consumption, to cancer, or to insanity. Under these circumstances it is all but impossible for the majority of the offspring to escape the inherited disease. Intermarriages of distinct diseases are hardly less dangerous. The intermarriage of cancer and consumption is a combination specially fraught with danger. Let one typical illustration of this suffice. A young man of marked cancerous proclivity married a woman whose parents had both died of pulmonary consumption. This married couple had a family of five children, all of whom grew up.