EUGENICS.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13835, 22 February 1909, Page 2

EUGENICS.

To the Editor of the "Timaru Herald.'-' Sir,—rln your issue of tiie litn inst. you published ail interesting letter l>y the Rev. James Chappie. 1 hope you will find space in an early issue for the following upon the same subject. The new Jaw of Minnesota.—Under this law no epileptic, imbecile, feebleminded or chronically insane person can marry, when the woman is under the age of 45. The penalty for violating tins statute is a fine or five years imprisonment, or both. No marriage licence shall be issued to any applicant not having a certificate of good health and freedom from hereditary taint of insanity or imbecility, officially given by a reputable physician. Opponents to the new law claim that it cannot be made effective until all the other States enact a similar statute, as in doubtful cases those proposing marriage would have but to cross the Minnesota line and get the ceremony performed at the first cross roads by a magistrate or clergyman. An' American paper gives the following opinions on the subject:— Dr George F. Shrady said: I should like to see such a law passed and enforced by the 'Union. The truth is that any intelligent stock-breeder is more wisely guided by the laws of health and heredity than are most men in improving the human race."

The Rev. Dr Parkliurst said: "I was saying only a few days ago that I wished there was something in tne shape of a civil service examination that had to be passed by couples intending matrimony. I have in the course of my life married couples that I have always regretted having married and couples the like of which I would never marry again. Whether the law can wisely take hold of this matter I somewhat question, but I wish that it could. Men and women who have certain diseases ought not to be allowed to marry. Men whose constitutional sliiftlessness is such as to make it almost absolutely certain that their children will become a burden on charity or on the State ought not to be allowed to marry. But while all this is true, I question whether we are far enough advanced to be able to enact safe and judicious laws applicable to such cases. I think at any rate there ought to be diffused among all parties, clergymen or otherwise, a sentiment that would make them far more careful than they are at present in deciding oil the qualification for matrimony on the part of persons presenting themselves to be married. The law should also cover actual oases of tuberculosis and every disease known to be transmissible from parent to child. I look on this Minnesota agitation as very important, a movement in the right direction. It shows the tendency of the times. It shows that

the people are thinking. It is the beginning that will open the way to still further legislation of a similar kind. If this could be brought about it would elevate the general morals of a nation more than all other laws. A trood physical foundation is the great thing after all. If a man begins life with a vigorous untainted inheritance, n good constitution, lie can withstand disease and meet every obstacle in life's long battle." Mr Goff said; "Theoretically J am

in favour of it, practically I am against it, because 1 do not believe it could be carried out."

Here we see the difficulty, apprehended in carrying out this law in Minnesota,' because parties wishing to marry would only have to cross the boundary. In New Zealand we are an insular people, and if such a law was in force parties would require to cross the sea to get married. Our legishiT tors are far in advance of those Of Minnesota or of any other country. They have placed more acts and laws in the statute book than classic Greece or ancient Rome did during, the period of their existence.

The question of the transmission of insanity is of the greatest importance when considered from the standpoint of heredity. There is no disease more liable to be propagated from generation to generation, not even tuberculosis. • One of the leading causes of this.terrible malady, of the mind is the intermarriage of relations, which of course should be prevented by law.. By such matrimonial alliance the existing taint in the family is intensified bv being made a dominant character. The hereditary predisposition to disease, physical and mental, may not be observed in a particular individual, but its recurrence in his or her descendants shows that the defect has been inherited and transmitted. In such cases the influence of favourable conditions may have been sufficient to counteract the inherited tendency, or the absence of irritating causes may have prevented the development, without interfering with the potency of its transmission to the next generation. The hereditary predisposition may thus be suspended for several generations and then reappear with an intensity that indicates the marked persistence of the hereditary taint, even in individuals that seemed to be free from it. There is an interesting passage in Thackeray's Four Georges, vol. 1., page 4, in which he remarks the reversion of G,eorge 111. to the character of an ancestor of the eighth generation. The inheritance of facial likeness and similarity of character of successive generations of the House qf Stuart has often been commented on; and the family history of lunatics is largely a history of transmitted taints. (See Maudslev, "Popular Science Monthly," 1893; Ribot, "Heredity," p. 131; Hamond, "Diseases of the Nervous System," p. 876). —I am, etc.. MYLES CAMPBELL.